TEMPE, Ariz. — The life of an NFL player from July until January is a structured matrix of meetings, practices, massages, meals and weightlifting. There are reminders at every corner — calendars in locker rooms, phone alarms buzzing and digital clocks strategically placed throughout the facility.
When the season comes to an abrupt end, the schedules come down and the alarms are turned off. But the internal clock doesn’t stop.
For the first couple of weeks after the Arizona Cardinals’ season ended, the internal clock was tackle Eric Winston‘s worst enemy. It kept him on the schedule he was committed to in the regular season.
It would wake Winston in the middle of the night, making him think he was late for a meeting. Then he’d look at a real clock and realize he didn’t have another practice until minicamp in May. And back to sleep he’d go.
“After you scare yourself a couple times, you talk to yourself a little bit and say you don’t have to be anywhere,” Winston said. “That fast-paced kind of life for seven months, when it suddenly stops, sometimes it’s not even physical. It’s a mental decompression that has to go on.”
Recovering from the season isn’t just about healing the aches and pains or getting surgeries and rehab done. It’s also about easing the mind back into everyday life. For more than half the year, football players are focused on plays, game plans and audibles. “I think it takes more time for your mind to realize that there’s not a game this week,” Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “But I feel like I’ve got a good balance.”
