Maybe my favorite part of spring practice was rather insignificant, at least to the eye, yesterday afternoon. At about 4:40 p.m., more than half-way through the 14th of 15 spring practices, safety Robert Sands jogged onto the field wearing a fleece and sweat pants and holding a few sharpened No. 2 pencils.

He’d just taken a math placement exam downtown and had hustled back uptown to make the final six periods of an 18-period practice — and a dozen or so sideline-to-sideline sprints for everyone immediately after.

“I could have easily taken my time coming back,” the 6-foot-5 Sands said. “I could have easily not shown up at all. My coach knew I had a test, but I wanted to come back. It’s just my commitment to the team and to me being a leader out there. I needed to be out on the field with those guys at the time. The main thing for me is being out there because I need them just as much as they need me, so I wanted to do anything I could to be out there.”

Some may debate the usefulness of spring practice, especially for veterans who’ve been through it all before, but Sands understands it for what it is.