Plankton
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A window into the aging of football players
So this isn’t as much as a headline of the weekend as it is a realization: I’m not sure Tom Brady’s a total outlier. We’ve assumed Brady, playing so well at 40, is the singular exception to the rule that says football players can’t play so well from their mid-30s to the mid-40s. (And maybe they can’t; except for punters and kickers we don’t have much of a track record on players playing well beyond 38 to 40 years old.) But I think that may be because we’re at the dawn of a new age of players turning this into a lifestyle, the way Brady has.
I visited Dallas tight end Jason Witten, 35, a week ago Monday in Dallas, and spent seven hours with him on his day off, as he recovered and rehabbed while preparing to play his franchise-record 241st game for the Cowboys. I wanted to track Witten because he plays a physical position, he’s 35, he’s missed one game (as a rookie, in 2003), and two practices in 15 years of professional football … and because he’s totally changed how he prepares and how he uses technology to stay on top of his nagging physical issues.
Watch the extended version of the video I did for NBC to see what I mean about Witten’s dedication, and what he does on a Monday.
It’s not just Witten. Lots of people around the league think there’s a metamorphosis going on, and players will almost routinely be playing the most physically demanding positions well into their late 30s—assuming they’re comfortable taking the risks of head trauma they know are part of the gig. “You’re hitting on something I’ve seen for a little while,” Saints coach Sean Payton said on Sunday. “It’s changed the last five, six years. It’s changing now. We just brought in a sleep specialist to talk to the team this year. We have a sleep tank for players, a cryo-chamber, masseuses on Friday.”
Witten says he’s learned from reading what Brady’s done, and learned from the Cowboys athletic trainers who have taught him about dry-needling, an acupuncture-like treatment designed to soothe pain in specific areas of the body; jet-stream-focused water-pressure treatment in fitness pools; and other tissue-enhancing aids like compression pants and deep-tissue massage and dynamic stretching and flexing the day after the body has been stressed or injured. Witten says early in his career he believed the day after the game was for rest, purely, and maybe a massage. Now he realizes he’s got to move, and he’s got to attack his vulnerable areas. ”I feel a lot better this time of year, this year, than I did six or eight years ago at this point of the season,” said Witten.
“I’ve read a lot about Brady,” he told me. “It’s inspiring what he’s doing. I really think he’s changing the game. Tom and his team have created a formula for all of us.”
You’ll enjoy the video, particularly if you’re a person who exercises or who has wondered about some of these players defying convention when it comes to career length.
A window into the aging of football players
So this isn’t as much as a headline of the weekend as it is a realization: I’m not sure Tom Brady’s a total outlier. We’ve assumed Brady, playing so well at 40, is the singular exception to the rule that says football players can’t play so well from their mid-30s to the mid-40s. (And maybe they can’t; except for punters and kickers we don’t have much of a track record on players playing well beyond 38 to 40 years old.) But I think that may be because we’re at the dawn of a new age of players turning this into a lifestyle, the way Brady has.
I visited Dallas tight end Jason Witten, 35, a week ago Monday in Dallas, and spent seven hours with him on his day off, as he recovered and rehabbed while preparing to play his franchise-record 241st game for the Cowboys. I wanted to track Witten because he plays a physical position, he’s 35, he’s missed one game (as a rookie, in 2003), and two practices in 15 years of professional football … and because he’s totally changed how he prepares and how he uses technology to stay on top of his nagging physical issues.
Watch the extended version of the video I did for NBC to see what I mean about Witten’s dedication, and what he does on a Monday.
It’s not just Witten. Lots of people around the league think there’s a metamorphosis going on, and players will almost routinely be playing the most physically demanding positions well into their late 30s—assuming they’re comfortable taking the risks of head trauma they know are part of the gig. “You’re hitting on something I’ve seen for a little while,” Saints coach Sean Payton said on Sunday. “It’s changed the last five, six years. It’s changing now. We just brought in a sleep specialist to talk to the team this year. We have a sleep tank for players, a cryo-chamber, masseuses on Friday.”
Witten says he’s learned from reading what Brady’s done, and learned from the Cowboys athletic trainers who have taught him about dry-needling, an acupuncture-like treatment designed to soothe pain in specific areas of the body; jet-stream-focused water-pressure treatment in fitness pools; and other tissue-enhancing aids like compression pants and deep-tissue massage and dynamic stretching and flexing the day after the body has been stressed or injured. Witten says early in his career he believed the day after the game was for rest, purely, and maybe a massage. Now he realizes he’s got to move, and he’s got to attack his vulnerable areas. ”I feel a lot better this time of year, this year, than I did six or eight years ago at this point of the season,” said Witten.
“I’ve read a lot about Brady,” he told me. “It’s inspiring what he’s doing. I really think he’s changing the game. Tom and his team have created a formula for all of us.”
You’ll enjoy the video, particularly if you’re a person who exercises or who has wondered about some of these players defying convention when it comes to career length.