Cafe Home
Fantasy Baseball
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by Dr. Duran Duran » Thu Aug 03, 2006 2:18 pm JACKSON, Miss. -- Reserve quarterback Jamie Martin reported to training camp in time to practice on Wednesday afternoon.
Martin did not report last week as scheduled after being excused to remain with his wife, who underwent an operation for breast cancer.
Martin said his wife would be moving with him to New Orleans during the regular season and continue her treatment there. She also encouraged her husband to divulge her illness publicly.
"She's all right with me telling everyone who will listen because she wants to encourage everyone to get checked," Martin said. "It's the same old saying, you never think it will happen to you. It was something she had kind of put off and was told was OK by some people, and finally she insisted on getting this checked and it turned out to be cancer."
Martin and his wife have three children, an 8-year-old boy, 3-year-old girl and a 1½-year-old boy.
"The 8-year-old understands there's something bad inside mommy and we took it out so she wouldn't get sick and she's going to have to kind of get better and deal with it for a while," Martin said.
He joins the competition for second-string quarterback along with Todd Bouman, Adrian McPherson and Jason Fife.
Martin played for the St. Louis Rams in 2005. Injuries to Marc Bulger allowed Martin to start five games last season, during which the Rams were 4-1 as Martin completed 70 percent of his passes.
Payton said it was good to have Martin back and that the team intends to do whatever it can to help his family's transition to New Orleans.
Payton said he was not concerned about Martin being behind after missing nearly six days of training camp, given the circumstances.
"He's a pretty sharp guy. It will be a matter of a day or two," Payton said. "We had him in the offseason so the installation (of the new offense) to him will be familiar."
