Deshea Townsend never felt out of shape until he had to wear one of those Janet Jackson microphones.
The Bears’ secondary coach wraps the wireless mic around his ear and angles it toward his masked face. His players tease him, saying they can hear him huffing and puffing between words.
“It lets me know,” Townsend said, “that I need to do more cardio.”
Townsend holds position meetings in the Walter Payton Center, the Bears’ practice dome, so his defensive backs can stay socially distanced. The microphone is one of a thousand little things Townsend, and all Bears coaches, are figuring out during the early days of the most bizarre training camp in league history.