As plenty of NFL players continue to engage in privately-organized workouts while the lockout continues, a future Hall of Famer thinks that the players are, in some respects, wasting their time.
“You can only conditition a certain way when you’re under the microscope, when you’re under the coach’s watch,” former Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks said on WDAE radio with Steve Duemig, via JoeBucsFan.com. “Your body responds differently; your mind responds differently. You can’t [simulate] that. You can do the best you can through the player-only workouts going on right now. And that’s going to have a certain seat at the table. And I respect . . . each player that’s doing it.
“But you can’t replace the work that’s going to have to get done under the watch of the coach. You can’t, because your body, everything about you responds differently and the competition level, that picks up. You’re not necessarily competing out there in player only workouts. Who are you competing in front of? Who are you competing for?”
Brooks also fears that, once the microscope returns, players will be more likely to suffer injuries because their bodies aren’t prepared for that kind of intensity.
If nothing else, we now have even more to consider if/when the 2011 season starts, and the teams that engaged in extensive lockout workouts are competing with the teams that did nothing collectively.