--The three other NFC West teams will hold their training camps at the regular team facilities. But the Cardinals are committed to returning to Flagstaff, as they have every season but one since moving to Arizona in 1988. Coach Ken Whisenhunt likes getting away for camp; he thinks it builds camaraderie. And the Cardinals don't have an indoor facility in Tempe, where temperatures often exceed 110 degrees in the summer.
--Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald is expected to be a part of the cover of the NFL Madden 10 video game this year. Sources said Fitzgerald and Steelers safety Troy Polamalu will appear. The game will be released on Aug. 14, and the Steelers and Cardinals, open preseason against each other on Aug. 13.
--Specials teams coach Kevin Spencer was thinking seriously of going to a four-man wedge on kickoffs after watching several other teams have success. Then the NFL made wedges illegal and Spencer is back to the drawing board. The bigger problem, Spencer joked, is now giving special teams standout Sean Morey a focused assignment. Morey, who weighs about 180 pounds, often was assigned to run into wedges on kickoff coverage.
--NT Alan Branch's goal is to report to training camp under the weight coaches have prescribed. Branch weighed more than 340 pounds most of last season, about 10 more than coaches wanted. Branch would like to get down to 325 or so before training camp.
"Last year I really didn't understand how much the weight was important to the coaches," Branch said. "I thought even if I was a little overweight, even if I played well, it wouldn't matter. But what coach Whisenhunt told me was not coming in at the weight he wanted proved that he couldn't fully trust me."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I'm not sure it's able to get done." -- LB Karlos Dansby on the chances of signing a long-term deal before training camp starts.
Dansby is in the process of hiring a new agent.
