During the season?

yes.  almost every day.  No hard lifting day before game but Monday/Tuesday hard lift


some of them (chris spielman) lift after games. I came in after a game against the vikings once and spielman is cranking like a bastard on the exercise bike.


"what are you doing?"

'game wasn't hard enough'

Been hearing a lot of interviews where some players say they are so beat up after the game that they barely recover in time for next game and an extra day of healing/rest is a godsend..let alone a bye week.

Pay me what they are getting paid.. You will get 110% from me.. No bitching.. Just doing work.

this is true but it's position / player based. O/D line, the linebacker corps,   they typically lift.  all the rest of the pansies,  not always. But they don't always lift anyway

and of course if you get the hell kicked out of you  in the game, you'll soak in the pool and get treatment instead

Yup. Generally your Big guys, LBs, some RBs...they take a pounding during the games. Especially the OL/DL guys.



The specialty guys bitching are just bitches...



 

LOT

these are generally the guys lifting between games though.  the ones who get beat up the most. it's the backfield's who won't. might hurt their delicate speed .   and RB's are all different,  you have some bruisers who live in the room, and you got the gazelles who don't even like walking past a rack.  Takes all types.  your OL/DL/LB crew is almost always in there between games,  with some RB's who are heavy hitters or who want to earn legitimacy.  And you'll have your occasional kicker in there proving he's also a "real" football player and working on his abs for the beach.....

Feet probably hurt from standing on them for hours on end.

Of course they do. They don't get to be that big and ripped by doing nothing.

How many years? My friends that played at higher levels ended up working as coaches within high school/college programs. Did you break out to something else?

That's what I always assumed.

But I figured I would ask.  Who knows, at that level.
A heavy weight workout can take a full weak of recovery... to be at prime condition again. So didn't know if they
"risk" being suboptimal for gametime.

sadly/luckily only 1 year.  I got 2nd impact syndrome in college and almost died. I wasn't supposed to play anymore but the bills made me an offer I couldn't refuse .  I played first year and was just fine, no concussion issues, then in the off season I got in a car wreck and got a massive head trauma, that was it for me.  the Neuro said one more head bump and I wouldn't remember anything for more than a few minutes the rest of my life.

the lucky part was during surgery they found I had completely disintegrated my C4/C5 disk, the parts were down in my spinal column  and were smashing my spinal cord up against my spine.  a very very minor neck slip of a mm or 2 would have paralyzed me. So in hindsight I'm glad I got out.

i still have some issues for a 40 year old related to TBI.  severe memory issues, migraines,  vertigo etc, so it hurt then but I'm damn glad I got out now.  I coach high school cause they asked me for help, but it's not my day job.

I would love to get into coaching but can't absorb the pay cut. I'd have to start at the college level and that doesn't happen.

What does the punter do?Eat cereal and watch cartoons?

season workouts are not structured for build. They are structured for maintenance and repair. We don't do a lot of big huge gain lifts during the season. It's a fight to finish the schedule alive, so mostly it's to maintain what you can and to loosen stiffness. *generally* ( this is a HUGE generalization since everyone is different) but the mid-season workouts look more like a bodybuild workout than a powerlifter workout.  Slightly lower weights with higher reps.

Off season lifts are much heavier weights,  lower reps, to build size and strength, vs maintenance

OL guys don't look ripped, strong as a bull but not ripped.

you're surprisingly close to the truth.  each person is different but this is close to what my experience was.  Being a punter is a sweet job. tons of money, not getting the hell kicked out of you, and long careers.

I bet you guys all gave the punter hell for that.It would be a pretty sweet gig.

My mom always wanted me to be a kicker or punter when I was a kid.  


I wanted to be dick butkus.  


I sometimes wish I would have listened to her....  


nah.

steroid testing took the ripped out of the O-line lol. but not everyone. John Fina - fairly ripped.  Me and Glenn Parker? not so much haha.



I have noticed the O-line is more cut again, either there are new, untestable anabolics,  or the natural stuff like animal cuts and whatever the baseball players are using is coming back.  

Depends on who it is and what position they play. Most of it is just maintenance, not building. Low weight and higher reps.

You'll see some skill position players doing resistance work with tubing and stuff like that. More like PT than lifting.

oh man, where would you start?  there's so much.  I'll say this: bruce smith is a *fast* mother.  If he would have ever been sober at practice,  you'd never touch him. It was literally two weeks before I even got a hand on him.  Literally. Never even touched him.

after two weeks I finally got a hand on his back and ran him slightly past the QB,  still sacked him but it took longer.  I was all dejected but the vets kept telling me it was OK.

finally a few days later they went A on A (first team against first not second against first).  Smith picked up fina and tossed him like a doll and ate the qb for lunch.  i felt a lot better.  that guy, is inhuman.  nobody should be that fast at that size.

once or twice a week

Lighter weights...more reps.

Do you blood test in any way as part of the evaluation of your workout routines.?

Punter, Kicker or Deep Snapper is where it's at!  If you got a kid that can deep snap,  get him working on it.    I saw a deep snapper get picked up based on four snaps.  

we're trying out for scouts at school,  the eagles kicker and coach show up. Our deep snapper is Morris Unatoa,   he's small for an O-line, but he's got a little speed. Not a great O-line player but OK.

the kicker lines up behind Morris,  he snaps one, right at his face.  Snaps another one, on a rope right at his face.  Third snap right in the chest. a frozen rope.   Fourth snap right at his face.

kicker flips the ball at his coach and says "there's your snapper" and walks off. that was it.

they drafted him 5th/6th round,  he played for 6-7 years.    Deep snappers don't get beat up much.  They get paid well, and they tend to last a long time.

Our deep snapper was a 13 year vet. he was also legally disabled .  he had spine issues from fat guys landing on him all the time.  but he kept snapping and getting paid forever.

we blood tested but not for workout stuff. We got weighed, and they put us in this giant white egg thing naked and made us suck on this tube to check body fat. we did that weekly and tracked workout efficacy that way.

I'll tell you this: the guy running the workout program on that team knew what he was doing. I'm a traditional fatbody,  I came home about 8% body fat, cut all up and was stronger than ever, all while working out less than I ever had.  it was bizarre.  His program was very very efficient.

they also paid to feed us the best, cleanest food possible.

Backup quarterback is the job to have.

 

Hell...don't they have a rule now you can't even really hit the guy?



Atlanta's snapper came from Auburn...frozen ropes pretty much describes his snaps. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Harris_%28long_snapper%29)



Not big enough for OL by any stretch (6'1, 225), not fast enough for a LB...but he can snap. And snap really, really well.



There's money to be made if you can through a spiral between your legs with accuracy and velocity.



 

That's weird, I actually liked long snapping and considered myself really good at it.
Never really did it except in jv highschool. I never botched a snap and always put it right where he wanted it.  Got to varsity and they already had somebody so I gave it up/never got the chance.  I hated seeing that guy snap one over the head.

MOAR STORIES!

What's really crazy, is the difference in skill/ability/strength/speed there must be in the pros versus college versus highschool.


We had two guys on our highschool team that I would have sworn would be nfl superstars.  One was a lightning fast tailback who still has the state 100 meter dash record 20 years later. He was untouchable in highschool. He went to ucla and sat the bench.

The other was a freight train (but still fast) fullback who put the hurt on EVERYONE. He went to USC and sat the bench.

(we were 5A highschool with 3500 students in 10-12 grades)

Fascinating stuff. I was a big kid at the beginning of high school. By the end of it, not so much. I was fairly fast for an O lineman but didn't keep growing. I loved football.

Good luck on your health issues CBR.

A dude I went to high school with runs a long snap academy and from what I can tell has some of his proteges snapping in the NFL.

It is amazing how it works out. Our super stud went on to play for USC, and I believe was an undrafted free agent picked up by the Saints. He was a pro bowler one year and had a pretty long career.

Then there was a smallish linebacker with heart and dedication that told everyone he was going to play in the nfl.
I wouldn't have guessed he was right.  But he did. (He played at a rival highschool).

Adam Archuletta.  I think he played for saints?

That dude was scrappy. St Louis Rams. He may have played for the Saints too.

Ty, freaking Detmer.   Stud. Best QB I've ever been around. Backup QB for 14 years, tons of cash, now owns a huge ranch in Texas for hunting. Love that guy!

That dude tore it up at BYU.

I thought I was pretty decent, had some success in high school but am undersized.

I had a friend that played in one of these "semi-pro" leagues and he invited me out to run in a practice.

The term "next level" became crystal clear.

My claim to fame is I shot him with a bb gun while he dated my sister.

actually this would surprise you. there is a HUGE jump High School to College.  Honestly most high school players could not play pro.  (or they would). I ran AMOK in high school.  I was a defensive end and it was honestly like playing girls. I moved pipe my whole life, I could jerk a 4" pipe filled with water up to my shoulders, catch it mid air and carry it to the next drop point. All day long.

I could snatch a HS o lineman off his feet and literally toss him like a doll to get to the QB.    

College is the best of the best HS players. And they guys you thought were "great" in HS aren't stand outs.   I was a big stud in HS but just one of the boys in college.  

there really isn't a difference between college and pro as far as skill level goes.  the Best college players are the best NFL players. The difference is,  EVERYONE is that good.

In college one week you would have a beast at UCLA. then a week later a schlub at Colorado State. Or the DE would be a bear, the LB would be a douche.

in Pro, EVERYONE is that good. You can't count on a pansy.  Every single guy you hit is the best.

the main diff between college and pro then adds up to pure speed. Everyone is fast as hell,  everyone is very fast. that's the main difference between college and pro, speed.

the nice thing about the Pros is everyone is, professional. If you smash someone and fall on the ground, you get yelled at.  Everyone stays up. we never even wore leg pads at practice.

if you blocked someone square, they'd stop. Not fighting and clawing every play.  

there were no "all americans' trying to earn a spot cheap shotting you in practice. that part was awesome.

I'd love to see that workout routine!



 

Related: Tom Brady began his offseason training over the weekend.

Pointy elbows

best in game moment of my life didn't happen during a game, it happened when we were on the sidelines, the D was on the field.

we had this one HUGE offensive tackle,  we called him Robo-Tackle cause he had so many braces and tape etc.  He's huge.  6'6", 360lbs.  a giant.  

so we're middle of the game, on the sidelines, getting the chalkboard lecture. Suddenly Eli looks at a trainer and says "come with me" and motions to him with his taped up club hand.

Trainer jogs over and Eli jogs off to the locker room, trainer in tow.  

we're all like "WTF where is he going we're middle of the game here".  It wasn't that abnormal though, if you got a knee brace twisted, you'd have to get out of your pants to get it fixed. And taped up like he was, Eli could not do that himself, hence the trainer.  

So we go back on the field with a sub.  After that series we come off the field and here comes Eli, jogging out of the locker room back on the field.  

Trailing behind him,  sort of stumbling along is the trainer. He's staring off in space with this sort of vacant, horrified look.  

Have you heard of "the thousand yard stare"?  I had heard of it, but never seen it. Until this day.

This 19 year trainer is stumbling along with the 1000 yard stare,  sort of glazed over.  


We're on the bench and Eli jogs up and sits down, adjusting his braces. We ask him what's up? Where'd you go?


Eli says "I ate something at breakfast that just didn't work"



it hung there in the air for a second as we all tried to work it out,  an unexploded bomb with a lit fuse, till it dawned on us what had just happened,  why he'd left and why the trainer had the 1000 yard stare,  and what had just happened to that poor kid.   Oh man. Oh the huge manatee. that poor kid!


someone started to laugh.  It may have been me, I'm not sure. Then someone else, then all of us.  Even the coach.  I was on the ground crying.  I couldn't even breathe.  

suddenly we were supposed to go onfield, but we couldn't get it together.  everyone is yelling at us and we can't breathe. We get out on the field but nobody can even get a play ordered out.  AS soon as someone talks, we all break down laughing.  Someone calls timeout before the clock expires. we can't get it together.

we wound up burning two timeouts and getting a delay of game and I think an offsides out of that.  I'm sure we ran for it later but it was totally worth it.   I have never heard or seen something so bad in my life. The thought of having to wipe some 360 pound guys ass,  while he's all taped up and has a case of the runs,   during the football game when he's at his sweatiest,  stinkiest peak would be just too much.  

we didn't see too much of ol' steve, the trainer after that. He mostly avoided us and if he saw us he'd look away quickly, and sometimes blush.  I"m pretty sure he bailed on the PT program after that, and probably went into accounting or something as far from stinky, sweaty jock ass that he had to wipe as possible.  At least I hope so.


that was by far the funniest thing that ever happened in a game. There are thousands of stories, but that one was  one of the funniest things that ever happened.

I always wanted to be a punter beleive it or not. Too bad I never cashed in on any opportunities to play growing up. I used to be able to kick the hell out of a football. Seemed like fun, that and I knew I wasn't big enough for any other position. Oh well, maybe in my next life, or if a team wants to sign a 33 year old computer geek. Hey I can still kick like a mother!

 

I may have overestimated my level of "cut". By cut I mean I could see one ab. Maybe two  but far less fat than I traditionally carry haha.  I'm chubby but abnormally strong and fast.  It  was my secret weapon. For whatever reason I "look slow". People tell me that over and over again.  One scout says it's cause I move fluidly.  He says on film you always look like you can't get out there.  But then you are always there. When they clocked me I ran a 5.01 40 at 335 with a 35" vertical.

at 290 I ran a 4.75 and had the second highest agility rating on my college team.  So I look slow but can move along fairly well.

I have the program scanned somewhere. It's ten years old now but shoot me an email and I'll try and dig it up.  it's a huge file though so may ahve to figure out how to send it to you. I ran it through a scanner some years back and scanned it into a huge file.  It's also highly confusing.  it's not a routine where you do the sme thing all the time.  

like on Mondays you do 65% max. then wed 80% max, then one day 50% max, then 95% then 40% etc.  lots and lots of that. The running is different too. IN college they just run your ass off.  25 indys (across field and back), or 10 reindeers (goal line to goal line hitting the ground with the whistle).

the pro workout was different.  Treadmill at 7-10 mph depending on the day. then 30 sec on, 30 off, then 45 on 30 off, then 10 on 45 off, then 60 on 90 off, etc. you are constantly jumping on and off the treadmill.

Oh and you should see the treadmills! they are these weird brown industrial looking things with a dial, a speed indicator, a button and a bar.  like nothing you've ever seen. I think they are built for horses or something. Literally.  Most industrial things I've ever seen. No swoopy plastic, water bottle holders, LED's nothing.