July 29, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher directs his team during training camp at ContinuityX Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

You know football is officially back when the squad puts on the pads in practice for the first time, and that was the case at Rams Park on Thursday. You can work all you want in shorts, but things start to get real once the pads get strapped on and the guys start really hammering each other. There were some scuffles and things of that nature, but overall it was a good day for the Rams. Here’s what head coach Jeff Fisher thought of the practice.

“It was good. It was our first official practice with the whole team with pads. What happens is it slows down a little bit even though they only weigh a few pounds, It slows down. But I thought we got a lot done and we worked a lot of situational stuff, the two minute, the redzone and I thought it was pretty good.”

“It’s especially beneficial for the guys up front that got the pass rush for the first time in 7 or 8 months so that was good. We need as much of that kind of stuff as they can get so we’ll continue with that the next couple of days. It’s a process and we’ve got a lot of time ahead of us.”

(On T Roger Saffold coming back from an injury)
“The injury’s completely behind him. He’s strong. He’s really worked hard this offseason, with his feet, his balance and his technique and the injury’s behind and he’s doing just fine. He’s got a couple pretty good rushers out there to work against every day.”

The next week is going to be absolutely nuts all over the NFL, and our St. Louis Rams are certainly no different. As many time lines as we have seen recently, it looks like we finally have an actual, concrete list of dates for the next few weeks up to the first preseason game Saturday, August 13 against the Colts at the Jones Dome. Obviously, you shouldn’t be shocked if something changes with these at some point, but it looks like this list provided by Jim Thomas should be as close to accurate as we can get right now. Some of these dates will be affected depending on how long it takes to ratify the agreed-upon CBA, so keep that in mind as well.