The NFL closed team facilities back in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, mandating that no one be allowed in the buildings until it was safe to do so. That, of course, prevented OTAs and minicamps from happening, forcing players to find other ways to train and stay in shape.
Some built gyms in their garages, like Andrew Whitworth did, while others found separate locations to work out at. Robert Woods didn’t have the easiest time finding places to train, but he made the best of it.
He bounced around from high school to high school, working out on their fields and tracks before getting kicked out.
“I really just tried to bounce around from track to track, high school to high school. Get some work in before we got kicked off the field,” he told reporters Thursday. “Really just trying to get it in, staying on the speed and utilize the community – find some hills in the neighborhood and work on that drive-phase to obviously be able to break tackles and continue to make big plays with the ball in my hands.”
Woods lives in the Southern California area, which certainly doesn’t lack high schools – especially ones with nice fields and facilities. But the difficult part was finding a school that didn’t have someone watching it for violations of social distancing mandates.
Woods and his group used a combination of three high schools that they bounced around from throughout the offseason.
“You get approval, or you might see a gate open, so you hop on the track and get your work in. The next day you may see somebody watching you on the track and they’ll say, ‘Hey, what are you doing out here?’ Then find ways to get you off the track,” he continued. “Next thing you know, you’re shooting texts around trying to find another available track. So, we bounced around from three different tracks, but we’ve been able to get some good quality work in. Like I said, finding the hills, running the community. Being out here in Thousand Oaks, Woodland Hills, you find some good streets with some good incline.”
Surely, being a former USC Trojan and current Rams receiver, Woods would have some pull in the area, right? Not exactly, even though he tried to use the “I play for the Rams” card.
“It worked for Day 1, but it went above somebody, and they got us kicked off,” he said.
Woods did say he set up a weight room in his backyard, which he used to work on “single-leg strength, single-leg lifts” during the offseason. He wanted to improve his get-off and be able to release from cornerbacks quickly, which those leg drills and hill runs help with.