Nowadays we hear alot about how athletes are sooo well conditioned in the off season. Reality is, lifting weights, while it does make you stronger so you can hit harder, and develop muscles so you can endure a hit and keep going, is not all there is to it. In the military they train you for war by putting you in war conditions and making you perform and do your job repeatedly unti it is habti and you can do it in any conditions. How can that happen if we are so worried about one getting hurt, that we avoid true war conditions?

The way men become hitters is by hitting and working out, not just by working out. The way they get accustomed to performing well while being hit hard, is to be forced to perform while being hit hard. I am a little concerned these guys instead of wanting to be warriors, prefer to be treated like American Idol contestant’s hairdos. They don’t want anyone to touch them preseason because it might muss their hair. I don’t believe it’s Gibbs, as he has produced many warriors who hit like Mack trucks all season long and were ready come game time. I think he is working with the egoes of men who want to be treated like famous models instead of warriors. If these men cannot get ready to hit before the season starts, then the first four or five games will be lost (like last season folks keep wanting to bring up), to teams who ARE ready to hit.

So it leaves me wondering what can be done, since the agents and lawyers probably have Gibb’s hands tied preventing him from being brutal and teaching these men how to be brutal. If these men were so ‘conditioned in the offseason’ as some ‘blonde thinkers’ put it, then why are they getting tossed around like girlscouts? I think we need to rethink what has become a tolerable mentality towards conditioning. This is football, not workouts for an exercise video production. Conditioning has to be brutal, if you want a brutal team that outlasts any enemy in any war. If we want to win a few and be mediocre, then by all means let’s do it like we have been. In fact, why not replace the weight room with a hair and makeup salon? Then we can get rid of the sleds and put modeling runways and cameras there instead. We will look great, and the other team will know how wonderful and ripped we look before we come, but then comes the grim reality of the war on the gridiron, but hey, at least we will have nice photos for memories huh?

Maybe ALOT of blood and guts is what will turn us back into the dynasty we once were. Maybe suffering and intense pain are what makes warriors able to perform hurt and hammered. Maybe avoiding it to avoid injury is the problem.