Only days away from a scheduled trip to Berlin for the start the NFL Europe season, the hardest thing for Packers offensive lineman Bill Ferrario is not knowing whether the trip will actually take place.
Wednesday, before war broke out in Iraq, the NFL announced that the NFLE schedule would proceed as planned. But Ferrario said that's only one of the many things he's heard at the Berlin Thunder's training camp in Florida.
"The biggest buzz is that nobody knows anything right now," Ferrario said Friday. "There are a couple thousand different rumors floating around about where we'll play or when we'll play.
"The last time we were told anything definitely was Tuesday, when they said everything was gung-ho to go to Europe. But since then, no one has said anything to us either way.
"I'm trying to just go with the flow, but I feel like I just don't know how it's going to come out yet."
A fourth-round draft choice out of the University of Wisconsin in 2001, Ferrario is one of 14 Packers players allocated to the NFL's developmental league, but along with second-year quarterback Craig Nall, he's one of the more household names.
Drafted as a guard, Ferrario was assigned to NFLE to get game reps at center, a position he only started to learn at training camp last summer. After three weeks at the Thunder's training camp in Florida, Ferrario is already seeing progress.
"It's definitely been a positive experience," he said. "If I was in Green Bay right now, I'd just be lifting and running. But down here I'm getting experience and reps, actually working on the exchange with the quarterback and on snapping the ball and then pass blocking or run blocking."
Ferrario is excited to be game-tested. He hopes that when he returns to Green Bay for training camp, he'll be a more versatile player that can play three positions on the line equally well.
Scheduled to travel abroad Tuesday, March 25, Ferrario would like to be eager about his first trip to Europe, but recent world events have made that difficult.
"I don't know how high my excitement level is right now with war going on," he said. "In any other situation, I'd be very excited to get over there and explore a different part of the world.
"Right now I'm just doing my best to stay focused on football. I don't have much control over the rest."
The NFLE season is scheduled to begin April 5, running until World Bowl IX in Glasgow, Scotland, June 14.
In addition to Ferrario and Nall, the following Packers are on NFLE rosters: Martin Dossett (Barcelona), Brian Haugabrook (Frankfurt), Bobby Jackson (Scotland), Isaac Keys (Scotland), Zak Kustok (Berlin), Shawn Mills (Rhein), Kenyatte Morgan (Scotland), Tim Morgan (Frankfurt), Jermaine Petty (Scotland), Everick Rawls (Amsterdam), Jeremy Unertl (Frankfurt) and Travis Williams (Amsterdam).
