While office jobs have turned to meetings over video chat and email chains amid the shelter-in-place restrictions across the United States, Baltimore Ravens players are finding they too have to get creative to get the job done.
In a press conference over Zoom, Ravens safety Chuck Clark and tight end Mark Andrews talked about how they’re passing the time at home and preparing for the NFL season while the rest of the sports world is idled by the coronavirus pandemic. Without the access to gyms and trainers, Clark and Andrews said they’ve turned to working out from home with makeshift setups.
“I think the biggest thing right now for most everybody is finding a space to work out and not being around a trainer or around a bunch of other people that are working out,” Andrews said. “So, just realizing that you kind of have to do it on your own. You have to get back to the basics. I have, basically, a prison workout back in my backyard with a bench and weights, and then I go to the field by myself and run.”
Clark said he’s turned his garage into a workout studio, using bodyweight exercises and a dining room chair to keep in shape.
“On my Facebook profile, on my account the other day, I posted a video and I was just showing different workouts from different people,” Clark said. “Regardless of your expertise at it, different modifications for different people, so I posted that out there and people can go check that out as well.”
https://www.facebook.com/100002890948886/videos/2461450880627919/
Offseason workout programs were set to start on April 20 before the league postponed them indefinitely in a memo shared by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. With federal social distancing guidelines in place until April 30, and shelter-in-place orders having been issued in all but five states, it’s unclear whether players and coaches are going to be given an opportunity to work out as a team at all this year.
That’s perhaps the trickiest part of this from everyone’s perspective — the uncertainty of how life will be impacted and when things will get back to normal. It’s heightened anxiety and frustrations for people of all walks of life, and NFL players are no different in that regard. When asked about the uncertainty of the season, that doubt was loud and clear.
“As far as moving forward and playing games, nobody knows what’s going to go on, what’s going to come from this,” Clark said. “I would love to be able to play in a stadium again where fans are in there.”
“Chuck definitely hit that right on the head,” Andrews continued. “No one knows at this point. It’s all to be determined, but those other sports that are dealing with this, it’s super tough. I can’t imagine being in that position. It’s not a normal time – nothing is really normal right now.”
Like the rest of the world, football players are simply trying to get by until normal life returns. When that happens, and what it will look like, is a mystery, but at least the Ravens players are doing what they can to prepare in the meantime.
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