Maybe it's a good thing that this season the New York Jets have their training facilities housed within the expansive Hofstra University campus at Hempstead, Long Island.
The season has been a disaster for the Jets - plagued by injuries, they have gone through five quarterbacks and staggered to a 3-11 record. So the fact that they are hours away from the hustle and bustle of New York City has meant that, to some degree at least, they have escaped being savaged by the city's media.
But one good story to come from the season has been the arrival of a rookie punter from Australia named Ben Graham.
Signed for around US$500,000, and the oldest opening-day rookie when, at age 31, he took the field against Kansas City on September 11, Graham ranks among the top 10 punters in the NFL and is closing in on a single season record for the Jets - his punting average of 38.9 yards is within one yard of the team's all-time record set back in 1965.
Back in his homeland, Graham was a household name. In 12 seasons for Geelong in the Australian Football League staring from 1992, the 1.96-metre Graham played 219 games, won the club's best-and-fairest award in 1999, and was captain from 2000 to 2002.
He had entered a long-kicking competition run by the league in 1997 and lost on the final kick to the Melbourne Football Club's Darren Bennett. Bennett took the first prize - return tickets to the US - and tried out for the San Diego Chargers.