WESTFIELD, Ind. — There is a new old face on the Indianapolis Colts sidelines at training camp this year.
Reggie Wayne, who played his entire 14-year career in Indianapolis after being drafted in the first round of the 2001 NFL draft, is now the team's wide receivers coach.
(NOTE: The video in the player above is this year's Locked On Sports preview of players to watch in the AFC South.)
Retired back home in Miami, Wayne said the call to get into coaching finally caught up to him.
"It's one of those things that I've been asked a few times and I've turned it down, but then all of a sudden, a little birdie was just in my ear, telling me, 'At some point in time they're going to stop asking,' you know what I mean? So take advantage of this," he told 13Sports director Dave Calabro. "It was a new challenge for me, so I wanted to see what it was."
In his first training camp as "Coach Wayne," Reggie is loving the challenge of coaching the Colts young wide receivers corps, but it has been an adjustment from retirement living.
"I enjoy it. I love football. You gotta love this sport to be around it, whether you're playing or coaching. We got a great group of guys, they like to have fun, as well as myself. It's just one of thoe things I gotta get in the flow, find my rhythm," he said. "There's a lot of meeting times, it's getting up early. I was on the beach. I went from beach to meeting room, so that's an adjustment in itself."
Wayne caught over 1,000 passes for more than 14,000 yards and 82 touchdowns in his NFL career, including a 53-yard scoring pass from Peyton Manning to help the Colts win Super Bowl XLI in Miami. He hopes that experience can help guide his receivers through training camp and into the season.
"I think they understand that and that's one of the things I can bring to the table, just kind of show them the way," Wayne said. "One year I had Coach (Frank) Reich, even though he was a quarterback in the league, but he was able to tell me what quarterbacks were thinking when he was my receivers coach. So it's little things you can throw in there to give guys a little edge, a little advantage."
Despite the youth in his receiving room - no wide receiver on the Colts current roster has more than four years experience in the NFL - Wayne has confidence they'll be able to get the job done.
"I'm not worrying about it. These guys, they got what it takes. They all want to be household names and they got to start each and every day to get to that," he said.
Training camp for the Colts runs through Aug. 25 at Grand Park in Westfield before moving south to the Colts Complex. Indianapolis opens the regular season in Houston on Sunday, Sept. 11 and plays their first home game two weeks later against the Kansas City Chiefs.