As the smell of tailgating fills the air and fans adorn their favorite
NFL players' jerseys while waiting for the action to start, most players should just be arriving at the stadium.
As
to be expected, preparing for an NFL football game is a personal matter
for which everyone has their own routines or traditions. In this
article, I take an inside look at what goes on in the hours leading up
to game time.
If kickoff is scheduled for 1:15 p.m., then
typically the latest players are allowed to arrive at the stadium is
around 11 a.m. That gives players roughly two hours before the start of
the game, which may not seem like a long time now, but for the players,
it tends to feel like an eternity.
Finding Your Sanctuary
Image courtesy of boxden.com
One of the first things a player does upon walking into
the locker room may be obvious: He finds his locker and pulls up a
seat. Typically, all of the basic necessities are laid out in a neat
arrangement or hanging up before you. The feeling you get when seeing
that fresh clean jersey hanging on the locker is hard to articulate.
It
must be what Batman would feel, if he were real, just before he puts on
his Batsuit. Seeing your last name printed on the back of that
customized NFL jersey serves as confirmation that this is reality. For
those guys like myself who often find themselves on the bottom of the
53-man roster, seeing your jersey hanging there is often the first
indication of being active for the game.
Early on in the
preparation process, most guys try to relax and settle in, rather than
jump right into their long list of things to do. A tool often utilized
for enhancing their calm is reading the game-day program, which is
something every player finds greeting him neatly placed on his locker
room stool, one of the many wonderful and luxurious perks of being an
NFL football player.
At some point during that two-hour window,
there is one specific pregame ritual every single player will partake
in. Before taking the field that day, rookies and veterans alike will
all take part in this most necessary tradition, paying a visit to the
bathroom for a nice, long meditation session (often with the game-day
program), which effectively serves to lighten their playing weight.
Many
guys find either value or comfort in showering before they suit up for
the game. I suppose to some, it’s a good idea to feel nice and clean
before getting sweaty and dirty. Actually, I can see the advantage as a
nice way to wake up the body and get invigorated with energy.
Preparation and Healing
Image courtesy of sluathletictraining.com
The hub of interaction and preparation for any locker
room tends to be the training room area. This is where guys get their
last-minute pregame treatments, from stem therapy to massages and
everything in between.
In here, guys fight for the right to their
favorite and most trusted training staff member looking to give them
their very own customized tape job, taking into account that player’s
medical history and personal preference on how he likes to be taped. In
addition, most organizations even offer up a trained team of
acupuncturists.
Heading into one of the last games of my rookie season against the
Denver Broncos, I was dealing with a badly pulled hamstring.
In the locker room before the game, I was advised to try
acupuncture.
This
was something I had never tried before and frankly never understood,
but reluctantly I agreed. The pain was instantly gone, and I was able to
run full speed without any issue. Miraculously, the acupuncture
treatment turned out to be the most effective treatment I ever received
throughout my football career.
At some point during the pregame
process, usually after you get your ankles taped and manage to put your
game pants and shoes on, it’s advisable for each player to find his way
out onto the field to survey the terrain and familiarize himself with
the stadium and playing surface.
This time also serves as a great
way for guys to release some of that nervous energy by getting a light
pregame workout in. This may include things such as jogging around the
track or making gentle cuts on the turf in order to test traction and
make sure the cleats are equipped with the proper size spikes for the
surface and weather conditions.
The stretching and loosening-up process tends to be an
ongoing activity scattered on the floor throughout the entire area.
Players are often assisted in this event by the strength and
conditioning coaches, which usually consist of two guys.
The
limited availability for access to the strength coaches means that
players of lesser value are subtly encouraged to stretch at their own
leisure rather than make a well-known veteran wait longer for his turn
to get stretched.
One pretty cool element worth mentioning is the
limitless selection of equipment accessories and chewing gum laid out
in neat piles on a table in the center of the locker room. This table is
loaded with goodies. This is where you pick various styles of arm
sleeves, wristbands, game socks, gloves and a wide assortment of
flavored chewing gum.
Looking back on it now, I should have taken more advantage of the table full of free goodies.
The Mood
For
the most part, the energy of the entire room is focused and relatively
quiet. Most of the guys are lost in their own worlds, trying to
visualize themselves making a big play. Some could be found lying on the
ground in a meditative state, often with a towel over their eyes, while
other guys like
Warren Sapp
could be heard from across the room, sitting around laughing and
chatting it up with anyone willing to listen. Sapp was clearly not the
type who was nervous before games.
Image courtesy of seahawks.com
Every team seems to have a music man, a guy who is in
charge of providing the music for the entire locker room. I was never
quite sure how this process happened or how one assumed a valuable role
such as this, but nonetheless, his personal iPod becomes the playlist
for all, setting a very important mood for the team. Headphones are a
common sight for those interested in their own select brand of music.
One
of the all-time favorite locker room prep songs that seemed to pump
guys up the most was “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. Who would
have thought Phil Collins would be pumping up NFL locker rooms around
the nation? But there is something special about the build-up of the
song, which climaxes into an infectious explosion of emotion when the
drums kick in.
I believe a tradition that carries itself out in
every NFL locker room before a game is the team prayer just before
heading out onto the field. Typically, the head coach brings everybody
in around him as the entire team, including the head coach, takes a
knee, holds hands and bows their heads. Then right on cue, the entire
team recites "
The Lord’s Prayer."
Whether
you are religious or not, the process of the entire team holding hands
and saying a prayer is a very effective tool for unifying a group of
people. Most guys are pumped and ready for action following the prayer,
which is why it’s the last thing before exiting the locker room.
Pregame Rituals from Around the League
Henderson's "Slap Ritual"
John Henderson felt the need to be
slapped in the face hard by a member of the Jacksonville training staff. This supposedly woke him up and got the pregame butterflies out of his stomach.
Brain Urlacher
eats exactly two chocolate chip cookies before every game.
This superstition is one of the odder rituals around the league.
Apparently, prior to each competition, he has to eat exactly two
cookies. Eating one or three is absolutely not going to cut it for this
Cookie Monster of the Midway.
Another curious oddity involving food and exact numbers comes from
Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams. Apparently, he has a superstition involving the
need to group his foods in threes. When eating his pregame meal he will only eat three sets of anything, whether that is cantaloupe, pineapple or anything else.
picture via Jermichael Finley courtesy of larrybrownsports.com
One of the more effeminate pregame routines might come out of Green Bay, with Jermichael Finley and his desire to
get a pedicure hours before a
Monday Night Football game.
Finally, this one comes from a former Raiders teammate and is less superstition and more a ritual born of vanity.
Special
teams ace and backup safety Jared Cooper had a pretty interesting
preparation ritual: He would grease his arms up in Vaseline so that his
muscles were shiny and glistening under the stadium lights. To add to
the effect, Cooper would also put rubber bands around the upper parts of
both his biceps; apparently this made them look bigger.
Perhaps the saying is true: “When you look good, you play good.”
Bernard Martin, 85, from Stowmarket, who took 19 painkillers a day has come off his medication thanks to acupuncture.
Ever wondered if blending acupuncture and yoga would be a benefit? Here’s what certain 
