A Day at Giants Training Camp

After seeing Eli Manning's forehead get lacerated Monday night against the Jets, I'm reminded of how tough football players are. It takes years of practice from Pop Warner to high school through college. Once in the NFL, players spend three weeks, essentially in isolation, at training camp. Under sweltering heat they're put through two-a-day practices, have curfews, and are so physically exhausted, any free time is typically spent off their feet.

Last week I went to SUNY-Albany—about two and a half hours from Hoboken—to watch the New York Giants morning practice and see Manning, who lives in Hoboken, in action. 

After checking in with the media office, which is setup in a spare room inside a campus cafeteria, and manned by guys who don't need to shave yet, I walked onto the practice area, passing fans sitting on beach chairs, concessions, and an obstacle course for youngsters aspiring to be professional tacklers someday.

While the temperatures were rapidly approaching 90 degrees, I was in absolute awe to see how gigantic these players are. The sheer size of these literal bigger-than-life athletes is hypnotic. Even the ones who I can say I'm the same height as, though there are few, have jacked calves and ripped arms.

During the two-hour practice—I was there for the final hour of the morning practice—I felt I was at an army base. The team is run very militaristically. Each division of the team–offense, defense, and special teams–are the infantries. Coaches were yelling to encourage their players like drill sergeants. After each drill, players sauntered across the field, heads down, knowing their morning wasn't over, and more so, knowing they had one more practice, but not until the evening.

After drills, all members congregated at one end of the field to stretch, in unison, muscles that were just put through extreme measures.

One final huddle was called to close out the morning practice, and the players slowly marched off the field, some meeting up with friends and family, up the ramp, past the fans–some stopped to sign autographs–dripping in sweat. The media repositioned themselves in front of the makeshift press conference area to hear the coach give his daily diatribe on what needs to be improved upon.

All of this hard work is supposed to pay off come September when the regular season begins, but after witnessing these gentle giants hit and run and repeat, I'm not surprised any more to see a team defeated, even in victory.