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- Mar 19, 2019
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'Sorely missed'
Every team across the NFL has been bracing for the possibility of near-empty — or even completely empty — stadiums this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic for months.
As of now, the Colts are one of the few teams who are still scheduled to allow at least some fans at their home games to start the season; the team announced recently that as many as 2,500 fans will be admitted into Lucas Oil Stadium for their Week 2 home opener against the Vikings.
The Colts say they are continuing discussions with local health officials to determine capacity figures for future home games.
Nevertheless, that game experience is simply going to be different without tens of thousands of fans cheering the teams on (or perhaps voicing their displeasure at times).
"The fans are a huge part of this game. Coaches and players embrace that. I mean, that is going to be sorely missed," Reich said. "I can even think back to my playing days where the players — sometimes in between series you glance up there, look up at your family, or you just scored a big touchdown and you see the fans in the end zone going crazy. Those are great moments. They are a big part of this game."
Rivers, who has been known to stir up his share of cheers and jeers, depending on the stadium, throughout his 16-plus years in the NFL, says he'll also miss having that fan interaction this season — and is disappointed to know that, for now, he won't be able to play in front of more fans in Indy, where he has had his share of battles over the years.
"Being as candid as I can be, it hurt — it was disappointing, I guess, to say," Rivers said. "I said to you guys early on how much I enjoyed coming here and playing in both the old RCA Dome and Lucas Oil Stadium. The fans were great. They were intelligent fans, passionate fans, knew when to cheer, knew when not to. So certainly that was disappointing."
Perhaps the silver lining to fewer fans, Rivers pointed out, will be the opportunity to have better communication on the road.
"There is an element to loving to quiet a stadium down of 70,000 on a long 12-play drive, or winning a tough game on the road in front of their fans," Rivers said. "But in some ways on the road it'll be a little easier now communicating-wise."
Meet the new TE
Noah Togiai was told by the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday morning that he'd be back to re-sign with the team later in the day.
Just a couple hours later, however, Togiai was informed those plans had changed.
Waived by the Eagles during final roster cuts on Saturday, the rookie tight end was claimed by the Colts, who needed a bit more depth at the position with Trey Burton dealing with a calf injury; Burton has since been placed on injured reserve, meaning he'll sit out at least the first three games of the season.
The 6-foot-4, 244-pound Togiai played in 44 games with 37 starts at Oregon State and finished with 102 receptions for 1,048 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was a Second-Team All-Pac-12 selection in 2017, and last year earned Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 honors.
Togiai has the athletic DNA of several players who have played the tight end position for the Colts; in fact, he played basketball at Oregon State his freshman year, which is similar to fellow tight end Mo Alie-Cox's background, as he exclusively played basketball in college at VCU before giving football a try.
"I like to say that I bring a very balanced skillset," Togiai told reporters on Wednesday. "I like to think that I can beat people athletically in the pass game, but I also have enough in me to put my hand in the ground and help out with the run game. I pride myself on being balanced — not too much better at one than the other."
Asked if he feels like he could be ready to go as soon as Sunday's opener against the Jaguars, Togiai said he feels he's getting the Colts' playbook down "pretty quick."
"There's a lot of similarities from what I just came from, obviously with Coach (Frank Reich), who used to be there," he said. "So with the playbook, I'm slowly getting it down. But it's one thing to know looking at a piece of paper and it's another to actually execute it and run it the right way. So I'll have to wait on that one and see how these next few days of practice go, and hopefully I can learn enough and then help us on offense and on special teams."