There’s no question that one of the things missing this summer for New Hampshire football fans is the migration down to Gillette Stadium for New England Patriots training camp.

The Patriots have had a few walk throughs and a couple of competitive practices this week as they try to cram off-season physical activity with camp. Believe it or not, they begin padded practices Monday morning, but unfortunately there won’t be any fans – and believe it, barely any media in comparison with the large throng that is always there – allowed to attend.

We’re experiencing pandemic NFL football. Through technology and the work of the Patriots media relations staff, there has been and is the virtual access to players. Fans have to rely on social media and the Patriots own produced video to get their camp fix this year, unfortunately. And no preseason games, while we get our mix of the Bruins and Celtics in their playoffs and the poor Red Sox bumbling through a strange MLB season.

And with the NFL, who knows what the regular season will bring.

Here are a few takeaways:

—- Bill Belichick isn’t mincing words when he says rookies are going to have a hard time. But the Patriots, thanks in part to some of the opt-outs, may have to rely heavily on them. There’s a photo of top pick safety Kyle Dugger making a play on fellow rookie tight end Devin Asiasi.

Two players who could see a lot of time.

“They’re in deep water and turbulent water and it’s going to get rougher, just in terms of the volume and the level of competiton,” Belichick said, adding “They’re swimming. They’re in deep water, and their eyes get opened every day as we move up in the process.”

—- The way they were talking during recent weeks before reporting dates, it certainly sounded like Devin and Jason McCourty could have been opt-out candidates. But the twins, who turned 33 this past Thursday didn’t. In fact Jason praised the Gillette and team staff for the safety provided the players.

“Me and Dev have spoken a lot about what’s going on and I don’t think either one of us actually thought about opting out. The opt out itself just wasn’t worth it. For us, just the love of the game and the ability to go out there, we really didn’t have a lot of (high risk) issues that other people had. … We felt it was worth it to give it a try and see what we were up against. I can’t speak for everybody, but we’re comfortable with the protocols and the measures that have been taken.”

—- Belichick never likes to praise high profile players during camp, or comment on them exclusively. So imagine what his reponse to a Cam Newton progress question was? “He’s worked very hard,I’d say, as all our players have,” Belichick said, who then praised the quarterbacks as a group. “…But Cam is a hard working kid. He really is.”

—- How into getting ready are these Patriot players? For example, defensive lineman John Simon, and Ohio State alum, and former Big 10 defensive player of the year, basically evaded a question on the Big Ten cancelling its football season.

“That’s a tough thing, I don’t know a lot about it as I’ve been here day and night getting ready for my job and gettng ready to get this team going, so it’s hard for me to comment on that. I know it’s a tough situation for everyone, but I don’t have enough information to give you an educated answer on that.”

A former Buckeye? Really?

—- Some perspective: “Last night,” Belichick said Friday, “would have been our first preseason game. We haven’t even had a team full-speed practice yet, let alone in pads. So that’s where we are compared to where we normally are, but that’s not even relevant. What’s relevant is where we are and what we can do now, so that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

And consider that there is now less than a month to the start of the regular season. We hope you’ll be able to attend games on some basis, but it doesn’t look great, does it? Strange times indeed.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

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