Today was day three of Maxx Crosby’s return to Raiders training camp. He had missed the first week of camp after testing positive for COVID-19.
Players are asked to quarantine themselves after testing positive, which means Crosby was holed up at his house, only able to use whatever was at his fingertips to stay in shape and stay working.
What did Crosby have at his fingertips? A palm tree.
“Yeah, I don’t know if you can see from my hands,” Crosby said, holding up his hands over the Zoom call Monday. “I have splinters in my hands because [Defensive line coach Rod] Marinelli, he was serious. I was stuck at home and didn’t have bags or anything like that, so obviously some of the training staff, they brought me weights and stuff, but all I had was a palm tree in my backyard, so I was sending them videos every day of me working and literally doing hand work on a palm tree and I was messing my hands up. It was funny, they gave me a lot of grief about it and made fun of me, but I was trying to get as much work in as I could, because it wasn’t easy.”
It was his edge rushing teammate, Clelin Ferrell, who brought Crosby’s unique workout equipment to our attention last week.
“That’s my boy, that’s probably my best friend on the team. We talk every day,” Ferrell said last Thursday of Crosby. “He’s doing good. He’s at home playing with the dogs or he’s got a little palm tree out there that he’s slapping on. He doesn’t have any bags in the house, he doesn’t have a whole lot of workout gear, so he’s been doing good. He’s just waiting his turn for when they tell him to come back in.”
That day came soon thereafter, with Crosby testing negative for the virus and returning to the facility the very next day. So, he really only missed the first two days of camp. Most importantly, he was back in time for the first day in pads on Monday. Finally he would be able to show off all the moves he learned from that palm tree.