A look at how members of the New York Giants have been conducting offseason workouts around strict COVID-19 restrictions.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced that the state would allow its sports teams to reopen their facilities and training camps beginning this week, but for the New York Giants, they remain on lockdown in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
While it’s likely New Jersey will soon reopen their doors, Giants players remain stuck in their respective locations for now, wading the uncertain COVID-19 waters as they ready themselves for the 2020 regular season.
So, how are Giants players staying in shape? In any possible way they can.
“It is tough for me because I like to be competitive with my peers,” wide receiver Golden Tate told FOX Sports last week. “I also like an instructor to tell me what I need to do, but the Giants have given us a fantastic program that alters to guys that don’t have weights. It alters to guys that do have weights. They’ve sent us bands. They’ve sent us different little items to workout. I’m very, very thankful I live in San Diego with a lot of space on a mountain. What I’ve been doing is running hills and getting my lifts in with the power blocks I have.”
Tate has also added mountain biking to his workout regimen.
“It’s low-impact on my legs. Easy on my joints,” Tate said. “I can open my garage, ride my bike 300 yards up a hill and I’m on a trail that takes me to a bunch of trails.”
For others, like linebacker Blake Martinez, the transition to home workouts has been much easier because, well. . . he has entire NFL-style gym in his basement, football field included.
“We started this project last year. We built a facility that has a living area, it has a weight room, turf field and it has a basketball court. Me and my dad made this project together. It was weirdly at a perfect time because we have to be quarantined. So I’m basically quarantined in a weight room. It’s been awesome for me. The picture was taken in the weight room part of the facility,” Martinez told reporters in April.
Like Martinez, defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson constructed his own home gym, and while it’s not quite as sophisticated, it gets the job done.
“I put on a mask to jog up and down the street, but I stay close to the house,” Tomlinson told the Daily News in mid-April. “It makes it a little bit tougher, but I’m doing interval sprints and stuff, so it’s not too bad… I’m staying indoors for the most part, unless I need to go to the grocery store. I pretty much have a gym in my garage now. I’m working out there. I’m running. And throughout the day I do some meal-prepping for the next day.”
Quarterback Daniel Jones would normally head to the Duke University campus to workout, but he’s been locked in place as well. As a result, he’s used the assets around him, including conducting throwing sessions with QB Country trainer Anthony Boone in Charlotte.
Jones has also compiled a group of local wide receivers to work with, including Sam Mobley, who played in both the XFL and AAF, Yale senior Melvin Rouse and New Orleans Saints wideout Maurice Harris.
Meanwhile, cornerback DeAndre Baker, who is facing a significant legal battle over an alleged armed robbery, has been posting his COVID-19-altered workouts on social media.
Offensive lineman Will Hernandez has also posted some of his workout videos on social media, complete with a “Danny Dimes” nod.
Running back Saquon Barkley, who has remained very much in the public light since the coronavirus restrictions began, had been working out in private gyms just prior to the Giants shutting down their facilities in March. Now he works out in his own.
“I am very fortunate enough to have my own little facility, gym setup I guess you could say. I kind of always wanted to get my own little gym and then this kind of happened so it kind of I guess you could say planned out perfectly for me,” Barkley told reporters in May. “So, I’m really not missing a beat. I’ve kind of got everything that I kind of need. Obviously, it’s just different not being there with your teammates. That’s just the stuff you miss the most and not being with your coaches. But just trying to attack it as best as I can and try to keep my body in tip top shape for when the opportunity does come I am more than ready.
It’s certainly not an ideal scenario for the Giants and their players, but they have coordinated well and everyone seems to be making the best of a bad situation.
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