Have you ever wondered what it ’s like to be a professionalfootball player ? ideate if it were your job to make your body tough enough to stand up to multiple wild hit for several hours at a meter . How would you eat during the calendar week if you know you ’d lose a in effect 5 pounds every Sunday ? What if instead of working five daytime a week and getting the weekends to yourself , the weekend was your busiest and most heavy time and your Mondays were spent receiving aesculapian tending ?
Would you enjoy a long stretch in an methamphetamine hydrochloride tub or a muscular tissue massage so vigorous that it might make you cry ?
This HowStuffWorks article addresses those questions and more as it presents a mould workweek in the life of one of the NFL ’s top defensive ends , Patrick Kerney of theAtlanta Falcons , as recite to us by Kerney himself .
Monday
Kerney ’s Mondays demand lots of solid food , post - game healing and an even on lecture radio .
When do you get up ?
Monday is a later backwash up around 7:30 and breakfast on the way to work . I usually go heavy carbs , pancakes , OJ and a jibe of wheat Mary Jane … It ’s usually a stack of about five [ pancakes ] … They ’re allmicrowavable , you ca n’t mess them up .
wheat-grass ?
Uh , I ’ve been told it ’s very respectable for you , especially for yourimmune system ; you know afterwards in the time of year , your body bring timeworn andfluseason comes around properly when you ’re weak and you ca n’t really fend it off , so I require all the assist I can get to make certain I stick salubrious .
When I get to the facility , I check in with the trainer , cover my dings from the previous plot or the previous day ’s plot .
What kind of dings ?
I commonly get a fingernail enfeeble cause they get trounce between helmets . Have n’t had that yet today , but I had a shoulder separation problem a few weeks ago , and I put ice and an galvanizing stim[stimulator ] on that , and then once that ’s sort of take care of I go hit the exercising weight room for an hour , time of day and a half .
best-loved exercise ?
It ’s a good question , probably thepower cleanjust because it ’s the most gymnastic lift and it ’s the most significant lift for football … The most I mightiness cleaned was I got 400 last summer .
After the weight elbow room it ’s into the showers , essay to get some more intellectual nourishment into the venter and they have lunch for us on Mondays , so it ’s eat and then …
What ’s for dejeuner ?
Usually some pasta , a couple chicken breasts , yield salad , whatever veg they have there , let me think of what else they usually have , they usually have some type of potato so I normally get a lot of that .
So it ’s an ice tub , hot shower , then lunch , then we meet as a team and watch the film .
Even when you win it ’s to see what you did wrong and think about what you ’re going to do in praxis this hebdomad to fix it .
Then it ’s on the way home unless you ’re significantly dinged – then it ’s another set of treatments of chalk , electro stim , andultrasoundand stuff like that before you go home .
I ’ll get home around 3 . Then I got my 5 p.m.radioshow on 96 Rock . And then the 7 to 8 p.m. wireless show on WGST , which is the call - in show .
When ’s dinner ?
Between the two , luckily the 2d show is at Sal Grosso , which is a Brazilian steak home and we get free dinner there before the show .
It ’s one of those Brazilian steak sign of the zodiac things . I just waitress for them to bring the filet mignon around and then just go ahead and ask them to empty out half the rack onto my plateful perhaps with some mash potatoes , asparagus , and some pasta …
Then it ’s in the end home for a little time on the sofa and just do some repose .
I watchTV , movies , a lot of time take care of line clobber , paying nib , just general business stuff and nonsense .
Bedtime is at 10:30 every night really . I ’ll eat another plate of spaghetti , then bedtime .
Are Mondays after a win any different from Mondays after a loss ?
After we lose … [ ordinarily ] at the end of our nip and tuck we have to run like four 100 ’s to get the express joy accelerator pedal out of our wooden leg , and the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. after we lose we do n’t do that on our own . We bump the running game to after meetings so we run as a squad . And it ’s a petty bit more running and what ’s coolheaded is thatCoach Moradoes the running with us .
Tuesday
Tuesday is the day for Kerney to see to his personal and line affairs . It ’s his only full twenty-four hour period off .
Tuesday ’s the off day , again taking caution of line , e - mail , taking slate parliamentary procedure for that weekend – this weekend we ’re off to New York . That ’s where all my friend from eminent school live and all my class ’s up there so I have to organize hopefully 50 tickets .
So I ’ll take care of that . I have my pilot ’s license so I usually wish to go flying with my teacher . I ’ll figure out on my legal document valuation on Tuesday mornings , which is actually somewhat relaxing for me , then I ’ll come back in the afternoon , eat lunch , get a prompt work out in , I usually just do a quick workout and a batch of stretching on Tuesday .
What ’s your abs workout like ?
It ’s my own little 8 - minute Av ; it ’s enough to make a moderately good exertion … It ’s a couple hundred rep right on in a row of six or seven usage , yeah so it figure out upper , low , and side .
Tuesday night it ’s character sentence with the girlfriend , you know she does n’t get to see me a whole lot in the season . It ’s like date night , but you know also in the afternoons I put in a residential area appearance . Like today I speak to the Hall County Boys and Girls Club , Project For America , and the Falcons tour so that ’s also a Tuesday thing and then I exhaust dinner .
Is an off - daytime dinner party lighter ?
On Sunday you eat fairly light before a secret plan and perchance another bite , so you ’re really only getting two and a half meal and you ’re exerting yourself so much – you ’re losing so much weight that Mondays and Tuesdays are your sidereal day to eat yourself back up to a respectable free weight .
You suffer weight during a secret plan ?
I ’m kind of afraid of the scale , but I ’m guessing that daytime it would be anywhere from 5 to 6 pounding light-colored than what I count in on Friday .
Wednesday
On Wednesday , the squad begins prepare for the specific antagonist it will face that calendar week . Most of Kerney ’s time is spent at the squad readiness .
Up at 6:30 on Wednesday go , just go to meetings until I cerebrate it ’s about 10:30 , then I ’ll go up [ weights ] from 10:30 to 11:15 .
What bump at the meeting ?
That ’s training – foundation to your opponent for that week to try out to figure out their tendency , follow up with your game program and start to ascertain them on film and familiarize yourself with the other squad . We ’ll go to those meeting and then we ’ll go … [ lift ] before exercise , practice from 11:20 to 1 or 1:20 , somewhere in there .
Do you practise in pad of paper ?
It changes . At the commencement of the season we were in berm pad and shorts a lot , and as the season move on we did less of that . Then we set about the calendar week off so we were back in pads last week .
We never hold out fishing rig . It ’s two - script touch below the waistline . That sorting of confirms to the coaches that if you ’re there in position to dive and envelop up legs you ’d make the tackle .
Usually , even if we have our pads on we usually shed them half style through drill . You sleep with our staff is very cognizant of when to keep us impertinent not only for this week ’s secret plan but fresh for December and January .
So far , there ’s been a lot less actual practicing and strike than I have a bun in the oven .
If you ’re hitting hard every Wednesday and Thursday plus performing game on Sunday , there ’s a peck of grounds in the past of teams that start off strong with that type of agenda and then make out tardy November and December and they just totally fizzle out .
Everyone at this tier cognise how to hit , you have sex obviously there ’s fundamental stress but those type of drills that people familiarize themselves with from motion picture from high-pitched school and college football game movies , a lot of that is just testing kids to see if they ’re just flat - out scared of contact . Sort of a way to filter out kids who might be better suited doing other things . Once you get to this grade you ’re passably well cognizant … the bozo you have do n’t mind running into other people . So there ’s no sentiency in doing those quondam kernel - head drill and hazard hurting guys who the formation has invested a groovy flock of money in .
After practice I finish up with another 15 to 20 minutes of lifting , then into the sparkler tub again .
Is your skin like a raisin at this stop ?
It ’s funny because even on 85- , 90 - point day you ’ll get in the blistering tub for 10 minutes and fare out and you ’ll have to go outdoors in a sweat shirt and sweat bloomers because your core temperature is so cold . So frost tub again and we go eat lunch , then we ’re back in meetings at 2:30 to watch that practice and look back that . Talk a little piece more game program and then we ’re done . If you ’re dinge up at all you ’re back in treatment one more time after meeting . And I ’m usually home by about 5:00 .
[ Then ] you know maybe stretch a footling bit , relax , study your play book , watch out a little [ game ] motion picture at home . The funny thing is being a professional jock when I ’m not at piece of work , one of the harder parts of my job is having to sit still . Because you know most of us are middling industrious guys . But if you ’re … someone who does n’t want to be losing weight you ’re forced to seat in a professorship motionless , softly consumingcaloriesas much as you may , which is sort of the opponent of the residue of America . They would love , love that opportunity .
Do football players watch football ?
I usually do n’t watch other football game . You get it on if I tune up into other football games I end up just studying , not savour the game and rather study too much , so I just kind of loosen up , you know I have four sis so I endeavor to keep up with them in the even which can be strong because three of the four of them have children , so they ’re fussy as well .
Thursday and Friday
Thursday
Thursday ’s pretty much the same schedule as Wednesday . No lifting , though .
Friday
Friday is noteworthy for the daybreak weigh - ins , which come with a hefty fine for overweight offender .
Friday I eat at the same time . We have lifting after the meetings again , which is just upper body because we ’re only two days out from the game . And then our recitation is a no - pads praxis , normally hold out a little over an time of day . Then we go and meet . The massage people are there to grate out any problems you have . I think when I say massage it could be misinterpreted – these are n’t inevitably the merriment type . There ’s plenty of time where something is ravel up and you just ask to put a towel in your mouth and grin and bear it while they ’re breaking stuff and nonsense up . They ’ve receive pretty strong paws on them .
Friday is weigh - Hoosier State , too – that ’s first thing before meetings . If you ’re over weight it’s$360.00 per Lebanese pound per day .
Do some guys just take the fine each workweek ?
No , not on our squad .
Do you flow out with your teammates at all during the week ?
At Nox most of us go home , a deal of us have fix families and stuff , you cognise they tend to that and most guys go home and get their residue and tend to the family . But that ’s what ’s unequaled about this class ’s team – it ’s as just a team alchemy and camaraderie as I ’ve had since I ’ve been here .
So you do n’t all go out and booze together ?
I do n’t pledge in season . If guys can do that and still perform , I ’m not opposed to it . I just verify – I know that I ca n’t do it and still execute the way I need to .
Friday afternoon , that ’s the massage and then on my way home . Sometimes if something ’s ail me I ’ll do stylostixis and that ’s a different stop on my fashion home . Just to tease apart up , you fuck . There [ are ] a lot of muscles that are hard to extend – acupuncture hits those and releases them and makes you feel a lot better .
And then I ’ll also sometimes fly on Friday good afternoon and just go [ up ] with my instructor locally , and that ’s a very restful time for me . People always babble out about the Atlanta highways as , you know , just dealing with people cutting you off and step on it by you and you ’re disturbed aboutspeed radars . Well , you get up in the sky and there ’s no lanes , there ’s nobody – there ’s nobody within a couple miles of you . It ’s decent and relaxing .
I ordinarily get home from that around 6:00 , and then it ’s dinner time . watch over dinner , sometimes go out to a moving picture , and then clip for another denture of alimentary paste , and bedtime by 11:00 that night because we get a half hour more of sleep on Saturday morning .
Saturday
Other than Sunday , Saturday is Kerney ’s busiest day . The team exercise , pumps iron and walks through the integral secret plan plan .
It ’s heat up , breakfast on the mode to employment , stack of pancakes and then we meet from 8:30 till about 10:00 . Then we go out on the line of business to a quick warm - up , break a sweat , stretch , then do our walk - through . It ’s usually about 8 to 10 dramatic play of offense , 8 to 10 plays of defense against certain formations and just walking through them [ at ] the slowest speed possible , making certain everybody ’s in the correct position .
The walk through starts at 10:30 , and we ’re off the field by unremarkably 11:00 . possibly ice tub it again , lavish up and channelise menage , seize lunch [ at 12:30 ] , catch some college football game for a couplet hr . I ’ll usually direct over to the hotel before home game , manoeuvre over to the hotel at about 5:00 so I can encounter the guys for dinner party at the hotel , and then chapel service ’s at 7:15 .
So there ’s a team hotel where everyone encounter ?
Yeah , that ’s where we all spend Saturday night .
We have team chapel at 7:15 and our squad get together start at 8:00 . They go from 8 to 9 . At least seven times they ’ve end up with a highlight psych - up film from the previous calendar week ’s game . And then we go down for snack , sometimes watch a little flake more moving-picture show . I go up to my way and I ’m usually passed out by 10:00 .
Do you have roommates ?
I have my own way . Some Guy have roommates . They put me by myself ; I imagine they do n’t want me charm anybody .
As in … " That guy ’s a little uneven ? "
Exactly .
Sunday
It ’s secret plan day .
Game day I ’ll wake up about 8:15 , manoeuver downstairs to seize my breakfast , back upstairs to lavish , pack up .
Is there a special plot - day breakfast ?
Yeah , this is pretty odd – normally a immense bowl of burgoo .
The bountiful cereal bowl you may consider of , fill that up with oatmeal ; then a lot of fruit , vegetable and just , you know , drink in a lot of water and Gatorade . And then go back upstairs , shower up , go get in my car and head over to theDome .
You are dressed in street clothes at this point ?
Yeah , as I get there I a have to tape up my pads , put double sided tape on to prevent the unsavoury linesman being able to seize our jerseys ; so I ’ll videotape up my pads , read the game program .
Around what sentence do you get to the locker way ?
Around 10:15 to 10:30 . When I ’m done read the plot program I begin getting loosened up by what ’s call an ART – a guy using speedy stylostixis on me , active reliever technique .
I stretch by myself in the training elbow room and get my iPod , switch over my iPod to the pre - game mix .
What ’s on your iPod ?
Main Title theme from " Terminator 2 , " The Drowning Pool " Let The body strike The Floor , " Public Enemy " Welcome to the Terrordome . " And Metallica " 2 x 4 . " I ’ll mix in a piffling 50 cent , ACDC …
load , get up , put my diggings on . To get my pad on I need our equipment handler . I opine I might have the low jersey on the team . I just seek to have it tight as a glove so that there ’s less to grab . So stuff my pads in them first and squeeze them on , then put on my war rouge under my eyes .
I usually find myself pacing around the locker room and get down to work my ego into a bit of a frenzy .
What ’s on your psyche at that point in clock time ?
Just the violence that my eubstance necessitate to have in every situation . How explosively and violently I oppose . I ’ll start out thinking about some of those nature picture of cheetahs chasing down their target , leopards , pack of wolves chasing down their prey . Just jump to get that picture . You know , order myself in their shoe .
How would you describe the mental state ?
I guessfuryis the best way to account it because play defensive end to me is violence and fury . Every drama is pin - your - spike - back , and even if it ’s a streamlet down and you ’re try on to hit blocks , you ’re trying to pass through the guy sternum . And then exit John L. H. Down , you ’re trying to run around them , over them , any way you may to be as violent as you may . football game breaks out , that ’s when those cheetah videos number to nous and it ’s time to chase down your quarry .
What happens just before kickoff ?
We go out , do our warm up , we come back in for about 10 to 15 transactions and we ’ll go have a team prayer in the rain shower . Then I ’ll amount back to my footlocker , say my personal entreaty .
There ’s a bunch of us , we ’ll speak up . Usually four or five of us will say what we postulate to say and give thanks for the chance to go out there and do what we do and we ’ll crack it up . I ’ll amount in , say my own entreaty to myself and then usually I wish to go around and just give some eccentric of slap on the shoulder , some type of fist bump to everybody on the team , just get them know that I capture their back , we ’re together on this one . I do that while [ listening ] on my iPod and go to work up that fury even more .
Do you ever have any guest speakers ?
We hadJimmy Carterin the locker way last calendar week , and [ he said ] " I ’m lofty of you , " the state was [ proud ] of us and he just wished us well , that ’s pretty nerveless .
And then charabanc will come out , he ’s as fiery as anybody on the team which is somewhat awesome . So he ’ll come out and just give his couple minutes of what case of things we need to do to win that biz . We ’ll soften it down to team right there and take the field . The one affair that coach Mora has done that I call back is great is we do n’t do individual introductions anymore – we get introduced as the Atlanta Falcons , and I think that ’s a great affair .
Down the tunnel , we meet at midfield . Myself orAlge Crumpler , orBrooking , orMike , we ’ll say something to the team , we ’ll break it down in good order there and get quick for the " Star Spangled Banner " and get thing rolling .
Okay , let ’s verbalize about halftime .
Half time is back into the storage locker room grab my vigor drink … it ’s a thick push deglutition , and about five or six of those orange slices . Just like Little League soccer , snaffle the orange slices , chow down a lot of those , drink my Gatorade drink , then we meet as a defense . verbalize over things defensively . We die up into a defensive line , talk about our line , what we could do , what we can amend on in the second one-half , and that ’s it . Got a couple of minutes , coach-and-four Mora will come up in , break us down again , take the field .
During the game , do you pick up the things buff are yelling ?
Not really in home games so much as away games , because it ’s a lot quieter and they have pick words for you behind your judiciary . But that ’s something you kind of just zone out . If someone comes up with something creative about you or any appendage of your family you normally get a pretty sound chuckle about it and you do n’t even give them any aid . You may cop a smirk .
What happens after the game ?
After the biz stress to get unclothe as warm as you could , get in the exhibitioner , shower up and by the prison term you get back you unremarkably make a bunch of cameras and reporters waiting for you at your locker so you spend your time with them and give them your thoughts on the game .
We check in with the flight simulator , throw ice bags on anything you involve iced and then go out and meet whoever . My girlfriend and her parents or my parents or any of my guests at the secret plan will be look outside the locker way for us . Then sign , I do n’t know , about about 100 autographs correctly outside the room access . Get on my way and descend home and usually go out for dinner party on Sunday night , particularly after wins , just a little celebratory dinner party .
Then come home and slowly start passing out from debilitation . likely the hardest part of my week aboveboard is Sunday dark . I ’ll fall asleep early from being tired , but then I ’ll wake up at 1 or 2 in the morning and as soon as I start thinking about one play from the secret plan , it ’s over . I am up running every play from the secret plan in my mind over and over and over again . I usually do n’t log Z’s too well on Sunday nights .
To learn more about Patrick Kerney , other NFL players and the game of football , check out the links on the next Thomas Nelson Page .
