Tuesday: Most free time for Eagles players Posted on August 26th
There was no need for Sheldon Brown to ponder the question, mainly because it did not make much sense to him.
“Day off?” the Eagles cornerback said with a wry grin when approached by a reporter. “What day off?”
Point taken. For several Eagles, Tuesday is not really a day off. At least not a full day off.
The injured, as well as those with minor ailments from Sunday’s game, report to the NovaCare Complex in South Philadelphia for treatment by the training staff. Young players who have made costly errors in the previous game are likely to come in to review game tapes with position coaches. Some players file into the massive weight room across the corridor from the locker room to get in some lifting.
Nonetheless, Tuesday is a day away from the practice field, as mandated in the collective-bargaining agreement between the players’ association and the owners. It is the day during each trying week of the long schedule when the players have the most free time.
“If you get in here by about 8 in the morning, you can be out of here by noon, and the rest of the day is yours,” Brown said.
For the more popular and accomplished among the Eagles, Tuesday is the day when they make TV appearances, take calls from fans on one of the local sports-talk radio shows, take part in one of the club’s community outreach programs, or tend to a chosen charity.
Mostly, though, Tuesday is the day when Eagles go from Sunday heroes - or something much less - to average Joes. The free time gives them a chance to do what regular folks take for granted. They pay bills, shop, do chores around the house, take the children to school or some recreational activity, or catch up on outside business interests.
“Sometimes I do appearances, but if I’m not really doing anything, I’ll do whatever errands I have to do because you really don’t have much time to do them the rest of the week,” linebacker Chris Gocong said.
Gocong enjoys tinkering around the house.
“I’ll maybe go to Home Depot,” he said. “I try to be a handyman, but usually I’ll make things worse, then I’ll call the plumber, something like that. But for the most part, I’m just watching sports on television.”
Gocong recently married, but he said that has not changed his off-day. “I was pretty much married before I got married,” he said with a smile.
As players scatter for their day off, the coaching staff has no such luxury. For the coaches, Tuesday is a long day of game-planning for the next opponent. They are like teachers planning for that week’s lessons.
Early-morning riser
Dawn has yet to break when Jim Johnson, the defensive coordinator, arrives at NovaCare Complex to begin a day that will last well into the night.
“I’m an early person,” he said. “I get here about 5, 5:30.”
While most people are sleeping, Johnson is studying video of the next opponent. He is looking for tendencies.
“The tape is already broken down,” he said. “I look for what they like to do on first, second and third down. I’ll just put the tape in and look at all first-down passes, first- and second-down runs, third-down nickel stuff.”
By midafternoon, Johnson assembles his defensive staff and begins to formulate a game plan that is presented to the players when they come in the next day for practice.
“Everything has to be done for the players by Tuesday night,” Johnson said. “They all get a book of the game plan. It shows the opponents’ pass plays and runs. It’s a pretty good-sized book, and it takes a little time to put that together. Meantime, the offensive coaches are off doing their own thing.”
For the coaches, Johnson said, Tuesday is as busy as their week gets. They delve into the next opponent’s strengths and weakness with such fervor that game day is a breeze by comparison.
“Tuesday is usually a late night,” he said. “We could go until about 11 o’clock. It’s like getting ready for a final exam every week. You want to have as much knowledge as you can, so we try to get everything fed to the players on Wednesday.”
For the most part, the Eagles realize how fortunate they are, playing a game they love for paychecks the average fan can only dream of earning.
Still, it’s a job, one that easily becomes all-consuming because the coaches demand that it be, and because that’s the approach players must take if they are to excel.
But mental breaks are welcome, and those free-to-do-what-you-want hours on Tuesday give them the opportunity to try to forget football.
“Guys go about it in different ways,” defensive tackle Mike Patterson said. “It all depends what works for you, like just talking on the phone with your loved ones. Or like just paying bills - that’ll get your mind off it.”
A mental break
Compared to the punishment his teammates must endure, kicker David Akers has it made. His success is generated more by what is going on inside his head than his physical prowess. For him, Tuesday offers an opportunity to break away from the tedium of his craft.
“I don’t have a lot of physical demands in this game, but the mental part wears on you,” Akers said. “My wife says I’m like a woman [with] PMS the last two months of the season. It kind of builds up as the year goes on, so I need those stress-release days to not think about stuff. It kind of builds back up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then I’m pretty revved up on Sunday. So on Tuesday, I try not to come in at all, if possible. I don’t have to watch film.”
The father of three energetic kids - Luke, 6, Halley, 31/2, and Sawyer, 11/2 - Akers can easily take his mind off football.
“We might go to Chuck E. Cheese or swim in the pool,” Akers said. “My son races quarter midgets, miniature racing cars, and I do racing on the computer. I do Friday nights at Atco [Raceway]. My daughter’s getting in the band. It’s just a lot of fun seeing them do things, and it makes you realize, honestly, that football is a job, but it’s not your life.”
Gocong believes the key to a proper mental break is a short memory. The sooner you forget about what went wrong in Sunday’s game, the better.
“I think it’s easier said than done, especially if you’ve had a bad game or you lost,” he said. “When that happens, you find yourself sitting around thinking about the plays you could have made. That’s why it’s important that by this point you’ve learned to have a short memory.”
Said Brown, “It’s a chance to get your heart and your head at 100 percent.”
Any way the Eagles spend those precious hours of freedom they get on Tuesdays, the time goes quickly, and they’re back at it the next day, when they begin in earnest to execute the game plan the coaches finished preparing late the night before.
“Most NFL coaches put in long hours, and Tuesday is probably the busiest day, the toughest day,” Johnson said. “I look forward to game day. It’s pressure-packed, but I look forward to it.”
Contact staff writer Ray Parrillo at 215-854-2743 or rparrillo@phillynews.com.