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Minnesota Vikings training camp a crash course for players, coaches
 MANKATO, Minn. -- The hardest part of Camp Chaos is remembering names. There are 90 of them, many of whom once commanded large, superlative-laced bios in college media guides but have faded into a purple haze. On July 31, their first day together, they lined up for head shots, and each held a dry-erase board with his name and position so the photographer -- and the coaches -- could figure out who the heck these guys were. Donovan McNabb, one of the newest additions to the Minnesota Vikings, cut to the front of the line, because (A) if you don't know his name, you have no business being within 400 yards of this training camp, and (B) hasn't the old man waited long enough? "All the vets keep cutting the rookies n line," tweeted Devon Torrence as he patiently inched his way to the front. Neither Torrence, the wide-eyed rookie, nor Official Eagles Jersey Shop Online McNabb, the veteran quarterback, talked about what every coach in the NFL must have been frantically playing through his head when training camps recently started in 32 towns across the country. That six weeks before the 2011 season was set to kick off, playbooks hadn't been delivered, names hadn't been New Orleans Saints Jersey Authentic memorized and rookies hadn't figured out how to find the bathrooms. Elizabeth Merrill/ESPN.comDevon Torrence, out of Ohio State, is trying to land a roster spot.But this is life after the NFL lockout. This is Training Camp 2011. It's cramming five months of a lost offseason into two weeks and moving faster than any NFL players have ever gone. Torrence was so eager to get started that in the dog days of the lockout he packed a bag full of T-shirts, socks and shorts just so when the call came, he'd be ready to fly anywhere to play football. The bag sat untouched for roughly Cheap Ravens Jersey a month. Torrence, a cornerback from Ohio State, was projected to possibly go in the middle of the draft in April, then three days came and went without a call and Torrence was stuck for three more months without a team. When the lockout ended and the Vikings called, he was in Minneapolis within 24 hours. A bus took him and a few dozen other strangers through the lush, green Minnesota countryside to Minnesota State University, home of the Vikings' training camp. Torrence was assigned to a fifth-floor room at Gage Hall, an old, brick 13-story dorm with window air conditioners and cots on the floor. He wakes up every morning at 6:45, slams down breakfast and a variety of meetings, then drops to one NFL Reebok Saints Jerseys knee before every practice. He just wants a chance to show what he can do. It's like finals week, except school has just started. He doesn't Baltimore Ravens Jersey Outlet have much time.  "I can't control that there was a lockout," Torrence says. "I had nothing to do with the CBA, past players or whatever. I can only control things I can control, and that's showing up with a positive attitude, working hard and trying to do my best." He clutched his pads and his No. 29 jersey after Wednesday's practice, the second-to-last one in Mankato. A little girl in a Brett Favre jersey -- a jersey that now Official Steelers Jersey seems way outdated -- walked up to Torrence asking for an autograph, reminding him how quickly the clock ticks in the NFL. And how it seems to move even faster today. Some calm and cool If a story NFL Football Saints Jerseys was to be done about the Great Summer Panic of 2011, Vikings camp, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best locale. Yes, the team has all the elements for a chaotic training camp -- new quarterback, new coach, new offense, plus a search for a new left tackle after Bryant McKinnie showed up for camp reportedly hovering near 400 pounds. But the Vikings are Authentic Pittsburgh Steelers Jerseys now led by Leslie Frazier, arguably the calmest, most mild-mannered coach in the NFL. Frazier is a football player's Valium. He does not panic.