Injured athletes wait for those moments when they believe they are back to normal.
Kerry Meier, he of the 2010 preseason-knee injury, had one of his milestone moments a few days ago.
What's funny to the wide receiver is that it didn't occur to him that it was a milestone until after the fact.
"I came out the first day and I didn't even think about catching the ball and falling and the knee hitting the ground," Meier said on Thursday morning. "But sure enough it happened. I got back to the huddle and kind of realized what happened and it didn't faze me at all. "
Meier knows there's a place on this team for him if he can make sure milestones like that come in his recovery and he can be the possession receiver and jack-of-all-trades kind of guy that he was drafted to be. He spent the offseason doing just that — focusing on a variety of the little things that can make him a better player.
"I spent it training on a lot of things," Meier said. "Obviously, there was an emphasis on the knee, but as an entire body, I was trying to develop and mature myself even more and push myself to become even better, bigger, stronger than I ever have been before. This game is completely different than any type of football that I've played. It's the elite. You have to be at the top of your game if you want to compete and compete well."
Something he's trying to improve his game has been noticed by many of the fans.
One of the hottest topics in camp is why Kerry Meier is wearing gloves.
The way Meier sees it, if there's something he thinks will make him better, he's going to look into it, including gloves. He's not commited to them yet, but he can already see how they help in one area of his game.
"Defintiely from the standpoint of blocking and tussling with people, it helps out as far as keeping your fingers straight," he said. "As far as catching the ball, it's something I'm trying out. It's definitely not something I've fallen in love with yet."
Training camp is for things like this. One of the things that will make him valuable to the Falcons is what he does when the ball isn't in his hands. If gloves can help him with that, he's going to try them out. In-game situations are not the time to be giving things trial runs.
"I feel very very comfortable naturally catching the ball without gloves," he said. "It's just a trial to see what it feels like."
