Training Camp

The NHL's collective bargaining agreement was ratified Saturday and a memorandum of understanding was signed, meaning players and coaches can finally get on the ice together. The Flyers will open their six-day training camp in Voorhees at 11 a.m. Sunday - about four months late because of the NHL's labor dispute. There will be only a handful of job openings, but there will be some interesting questions at camp. Here are some of them: 1. How healthy are center Danny Briere and defenseman Andrej Meszaros?

   The 76ers finalized their training camp roster Thursday, adding four free agents and bringing the number of invited players to 17.    When the Sixers convene Tuesday on the campus of St. Joseph's University, Dan Gadzuric, Devin Searcy, Xavier Silas, and Damien Wilkins will be long shots to make a roster that already has 13 players signed to contracts. Silas, a 6-foot-5 guard, was on the playoff roster last season. He took an elbow to the head during a summer league game in Orlando in July that necessitated facial surgery.

BETHLEHEM - So, back to NovaCare. The Eagles aren't ready for the season to start, and they have 3 more weeks before it does, but when the moving trucks clog the road beside the fields at Lehigh and the team packs up to head home, that's always a benchmark of some sort. What have we learned? "The thing I was looking for, were they gonna carry over that energy that they had at the end of last season [when the Eagles won their final four games], that they brought into the OTAs, now could they bring it into this camp here?"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Eagles broke training camp at Lehigh University on Tuesday afternoon, and wisely did so before camp finally broke them. It wasn't a great camp, from a football perspective, and memorable only for tragedy off the field and an increasing number of question marks on it. Otherwise, the annual sojourn in the hills was just a slog through the grunt work that must be done leading up to the regular season. It could be as easily accomplished at the team's home training base - an option employed by nearly half the NFL teams now - but the Eagles like giving fans a chance to see them practice, and Andy Reid still believes in the throwback concept of team-bonding at an isolated camp.

The chaotic offseason for Penn State football continued Sunday when the Nittany Lions lost wide receiver Justin Brown to Oklahoma. Brown is the ninth player lost by Penn State since the NCAA's imposition of crushing sanctions against the program resulting from former assistant Jerry Sandusky's conviction for sexually abusing boys. Now Bill O'Brien, the first new coach to conduct preseason practice at Penn State since 1966 - the first day of practice for this season is Monday - has a tall order to keep the team together.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - On one field, most of the Eagles practiced. About 150 yards away, at the far end zone of another field, nine Eagles rehabilitated injuries. The latter group ranged from Pro Bowlers such as Jason Babin to roster hopefuls such as Jamel Hamler. Coach Andy Reid suggested earlier in the day that the Eagles are amid the "dog days" of training camp. With more than 10 percent of the roster rehabbing and other players missing from practice, the work with strength and conditioning coaches served as evidence of Reid's claim.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Remember when Eagles coach Andy Reid compared Jaiquawn Jarrett to Brian Dawkins? It's true; he did, just after the Eagles selected the Temple safety in the draft last year. Well, Jarrett still may be a long way from the former Eagles great; heck, he may be a long way from starting in the NFL. But the second-year safety brought a little of the nastiness that Reid said he would bring during Sunday's physical and physically demanding afternoon practice. "Coach [Todd]

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Talk of dynasties, positional battles and the Eagles' Super Bowl chances drifted into the background when Rick Burkholder took the podium before Andy Reid held his annual training camp kickoff news conference. When Burkholder, the Eagles head athletic trainer, takes the stage unannounced it's usually to deliver bad news. On Sunday he announced that Mike Patterson would miss training camp and possibly more time before he's cleared to return following January surgery.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Talk of dynasties, positional battles and the Eagles' Super Bowl chances drifted into the background when Rick Burkholder took the podium before Andy Reid held his annual training camp kickoff news conference. When Burkholder, the Eagles head athletic trainer, takes the stage unannounced it's usually to deliver bad news. On Sunday he announced that Mike Patterson would miss training camp and possibly more time before he's cleared to return following January surgery.

THE EAGLES go into training camp this weekend with few starting spots in question. Right now, only two starters seem at all shaky — Brian Rolle at weakside linebacker, who will have to fight off Jamar Chaney, and Kurt Coleman at strong safety, who will be challenged by free-agent signee O.J. Atogwe. You could throw fullback in there, if you deem that a true starting position; the Eagles employed a fullback on only about 16 percent of their snaps last season. The incumbent, Owen Schmitt, departed for Oakland in free agency.