Recovering for next NFL game requires a regimented effort
The Monday after playing 78 snaps in an overtime loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders guard Sam Cosmi woke up so sore and stiff he couldn’t turn his neck. To glance behind him or look to the side, he had to turn his entire upper body.
“It’s always the next day,” he said. “You wake up and feel like you were just pushed down a hill and kept rolling. You feel like crap.”
Such is life in the NFL, especially at a position where nearly every play involves collisions of 300-pound humans. The wreckage on Sundays (and Monday and Thursday nights) leaves a body bruised, battered and often so sore the next day that basic tasks, such as walking down stairs, are difficult.
The pain isn’t a possibility but an inevitability, which is why Cosmi wasn’t particularly concerned about his neck that Monday.
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“It’s expected,” he said.
But that expectation is also why he and many other professional athletes invest heavily in recovery regimens that typically start the day after games — if not within hours of the final whistle — so they can do it all over again the next week.
In 2020, when quarterback Russell Wilson was with the Seahawks, he estimated that he spends more than $1 million annually on a full-time performance and recovery staff that includes physical and massage therapists and personal chefs. He also has two hyperbaric oxygen chambers to try to expedite his healing.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison would pay to have an acupuncturist, a dry needlist, massage therapists and chiropractors travel to wherever he is in season, costing an estimated $300,000 a year.
Others have routines that cost millions of dollars over their careers and include an array of specialized treatments, from stretching to cupping therapy, IV hydration therapy, deep tissue laser therapy, contrast baths, ice-water baths, salt baths, cryotherapy, acupuncture and more.
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While some players rely on the team’s facilities and trainers, others spend to get their own. Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin recently got an in-home sauna to help with his recovery. Some have their own cold tubs and compression boots. Others also turn to outside medical providers who bring their mobile setups for hours-long sessions of body work.
“They’re looking for whatever they can do naturally to get a competitive edge,” said Dillon Balkin, a chiropractor and founder of Maryland-based Optimal Performance Rehab who works with multiple NFL players in the area. “I think just the broad mind-set is, ‘Whoever can train and then recover the quickest is going to be the best on game day and is going to have the best longevity.’”
Case of the Mondays
Since the start of the last year, Cosmi, 24, has started his postgame recovery almost immediately after leaving the stadium. Following afternoon games at FedEx Field, he will drive back to the team’s training facility in Ashburn to spend time in the ice tub. He says the cold-water baths don’t reduce soreness, but they do help with inflammation, making the next day a bit more manageable.
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Commanders wide receiver Jahan Dotson has a similar routine. If he doesn’t go to Ashburn right after a game, he will have Balkin pay a visit to his home for massage therapy and cupping, an alternative treatment in which small cups are placed on the skin to create suction and pull the skin away from the underlying tissue to promote blood flow. Dotson also uses compression therapy, with inflatable boots he wears on his legs that are believed to improve circulation and, in turn, help them heal.
The next morning, Dotson will head into the team’s training center for cold therapy, either in an ice bath or for a few minutes in a cryotherapy chamber, which can drop to around minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit, to reduce inflammation.
“Other than that, I just want to rest,” said Dotson, 23. “I just need to lay down. I don’t get much of a chance to lay down at all during the week. So on Monday I really sleep.”
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Sam Howell, the Commanders’ second-year quarterback who has taken a league-high 29 sacks and 21 other hits in five games this season, has found sleep to be one of the most effective medicines for him. And working out.
This year, the Commanders’ day off from meetings and practice is Monday, not Tuesday as in previous seasons. So Howell, 23, will sleep in until around 9 a.m. most Mondays, then head to the facility for a workout.
He follows with treatment, which can vary week to week, depending on how his body feels after a game. Among the staples of his routine, however: film study. After treatment, he will re-watch his last game, then shift focus to his next opponent.
“I feel like that’s something that helps my body kind of get going,” he said.
For McLaurin, Mondays are all about body work — massage, chiropractic care — and nutrition. Maintaining weight for wideouts can be difficult in season, so he, and Dotson, make a point to pack in the calories.
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“I don’t even enjoy eating sometimes,” Dotson said. “It sucks for me because I lose weight instantly. I hate it. I got to force-feed myself, and it’s terrible.”
To help maintain, McLaurin, 28, makes sure to get in the weight room on Tuesdays.
“No matter how many plays I play and no matter how sore I am, unless I have some serious [injury], I’m back squatting as much as I can; I’m benching. I’m doing all those things because I just feel like it helps your soreness,” he said. “But also you got to continue to build muscle throughout the season. Maintain the gain because over the course of the season you just start losing muscle mass because you’re not lifting as much and you’re just getting beat up.”
The routines of McLaurin and Dotson are meticulous and were developed largely during their time in college, at Ohio State and Penn State, respectively. Since entering the pros, they have taken advantage of the around-the-clock recovery and new ways of monitoring their performance to improve their play.
Players wear STATsports vests to monitor their speed and distance run in practice. Dotson recently asked the team’s strength and conditioning staff to track his speed to ensure he hits 20 mph at least twice during the week so his body becomes accustomed to hitting those speeds in games.
Veteran lessons
Logan Thomas, Washington’s 32-year-old tight end, has a slightly different day-after schedule from many of his younger teammates. He’s up at 6:45 a.m. to help his son get ready for school.
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Then he heads to the facility for treatment, which typically includes Graston therapy, a manual massage technique that uses stainless steel tools to work the muscles, and acupuncture.
Looking back, he wishes he focused more on recovery earlier in his career.
“I was dumb,” he said. “I didn’t pick up on that stuff early. It’s kind of the thing I’ve been preaching to these guys — get started early so you can feel better at my age.”
The advice of veterans is often how players hear about treatments and outside specialists.
“The NFL is definitely a copycat league,” Balkan said. “Where one guy is training, they all want to train. What one guy is doing for a leg up, they all want to do. So once one of them sees somebody getting that type of work, they’re generally interested.”
Cosmi picked up on recovery techniques from Brandon Scherff, the former Commanders all-pro guard who now plays for Jacksonville.
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“That man, I mean, he knew how to take care of the body, what his body needed,” Cosmi said. “So for me, now in year three, I know exactly what I need, such as I need to go hit the cold tub as soon as I get back.”
Defensive end Casey Toohill has taken bits from Ryan Kerrigan, Washington’s career sack leader turned assistant defensive line coach. Toohill was a rookie during Kerrigan’s final season as a player in Washington and watched his almost maniacal practice habits and recovery routine that helped him stay on the field for 139 consecutive games from 2011 to 2019. Kerrigan missed just four games in his 10-year career in Washington.
Howell said backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett has helped him with his own recovery routine, and Brissett said he learned by watching Tom Brady and other veterans throughout his career.
“There’s some stuff that I didn’t like, and then you find those things that you do like and what helps get you 1 percent better each day,” Brissett said. “Because you’ve got to be ready to go on a moment’s notice.”
Starting over
The days after games are usually the worst.
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“I mean, you just got to find a way to get to the car, and then after that, that’ll kind of take care of yourself,” Brissett said.
McLaurin says Mondays generally feel as if his body has been in a car wreck. His legs are “super heavy,” and the soreness lasts for days.
Some Commanders players said they don’t begin to feel whole again until five days after a game. Fridays in Washington are dubbed “Fast Fridays” because players have a lighter practice and fewer meetings.
But others may need longer before their body feels ready to go again.
“Saturday,” Dotson said. “Sometimes Sunday. I feel like my adrenaline just pushes me through sometimes.”
“I mean, Sunday to Thursday is rough,” Thomas added. “Friday morning, Saturday morning, I’ll wake up a little bit sore. It’s really every day because your body hasn’t fully recovered. … It’s just pretty much a full body from the neck down to the ankles.”
Added cornerback Kendall Fuller: “Sunday morning I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to play a game.’ And then I probably won’t feel that way until the next Sunday morning.”
For Cosmi, recovery and preparation begin to blend together late in the week as he seeks out the steam room at the team’s facility and continues with cold-water therapy.
“There’s honestly a lot that goes into it,” he said. “Specifically for my position, with just how physical it is, that’s why the treatment aspect of it is so important. It’s almost like putting your body back together.”
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