Great read on the WSJ written by D'Brick himself
"A Week in the Life of the New York Jets’ D’Brickashaw Ferguson
A pro football player watches the Super Bowl, does a skit on Comedy Central and gets to eat pizza again
As the regular season came to an end for the Jets, we were deeply disappointed. It wasn’t just that we’d won only four games. It was what that record meant for the team: Rex Ryan got fired, and a new head coach and general manager were coming in. Next season will be my 10th in the NFL, and I know that team personnel change a bit every year. But when both leaders of a team depart, that has a big impact on the players in the locker room.
When the season ends, I like to take a little time off from the diet I follow when I’m playing. At the Jets training facility in Florham Park, N.J., we have strength and conditioning staff but also a nutritionist, Glen Tobias, who helps to whip everyone into shape. There is a heavy emphasis on grass-fed meat and on foods that aren’t genetically modified. Hydration is also a key element in player performance. When a 300-pound person like me is playing, I’m supposed to drink at least a gallon of water a day.
Players have an in-season playing weight, and we have to be careful not to stray too far from it when we’re not under the watchful eye of the nutritionist. This can be a problem when the food isn’t being prepared and regulated by our cooking staff. For me right now, that means I get to eat pizza and dessert again, and I do more snacking.
A few weeks ago, I did a skit on Comedy Central for the show “Key and Peele,” along with my Jets teammate Leger Douzable and Prince Amukamara from the New York Giants. In the skit, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele portray fictitious players with unusual names like Cosgrove Shumway, Splendiferous Finch and Vagonius Thicket-Suede, and they brought us in for some real-life examples.
With a name like D’Brickashaw, I made the cut (I think the apostrophe helps most with the humor). The skit aired this week, and I was laughing at all the crazy names they came up with. Now I just hope my mother found it funny too.
In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, there are always activities that players can get involved in. I went this year to an event in Manhattan at Jets House, where fans can get to know the team better. This year, former Jets players Eric Coleman (whom I played with) and Bruce Harper attended. I was also on a panel with my current teammate Chris Ivory.
There were lots of questions about the new Jets staff and about Rex Ryan taking the head coaching job in Buffalo. I told the fans that I hadn’t met any of the new Jets staff yet but am excited for the chance to begin working with them and the opportunity we have this season.
As far as Rex Ryan is concerned, I know that playing the Bills will be an intense matchup for us. I played for Coach Ryan for six years, and this will be the first time in a long while that we won’t be wearing the green and white Jets emblem together. I wish him luck—just not when he is playing against us.
Watching the Super Bowl is always interesting to me. As a left tackle, you get used to watching the game through a different lens. During a regular week of game preparation, players are encouraged to review the scouting report on the other team and to watch film with their position group (in my case, with other linemen) to get a better feel for our opponents.
Most players also watch film on their own to look for tendencies and analyze techniques of the defender for their individual matchup. That way, you can take what you’ve learned and begin to apply it on the field during practice.
For the Super Bowl, I try to watch the game more from a fan’s perspective, so I just follow the ball. It gives me a chance to really watch all the spectacular catches and runs—which I often don’t see during a game when I’m playing.
But sometimes my working mind gets in the way. I’ll see a miscommunication on the offensive line or a great move by a defensive player, and I imagine how I might have responded. Would I have gotten beat, or would I have been able to adjust in time to stop the defender? It’s hard to know how I would react. What I do know is that I’d like the Jets to be one of the teams competing for the Lombardi trophy one day."
—Mr. Ferguson plays left tackle for the New York
"A Week in the Life of the New York Jets’ D’Brickashaw Ferguson
A pro football player watches the Super Bowl, does a skit on Comedy Central and gets to eat pizza again
As the regular season came to an end for the Jets, we were deeply disappointed. It wasn’t just that we’d won only four games. It was what that record meant for the team: Rex Ryan got fired, and a new head coach and general manager were coming in. Next season will be my 10th in the NFL, and I know that team personnel change a bit every year. But when both leaders of a team depart, that has a big impact on the players in the locker room.
When the season ends, I like to take a little time off from the diet I follow when I’m playing. At the Jets training facility in Florham Park, N.J., we have strength and conditioning staff but also a nutritionist, Glen Tobias, who helps to whip everyone into shape. There is a heavy emphasis on grass-fed meat and on foods that aren’t genetically modified. Hydration is also a key element in player performance. When a 300-pound person like me is playing, I’m supposed to drink at least a gallon of water a day.
Players have an in-season playing weight, and we have to be careful not to stray too far from it when we’re not under the watchful eye of the nutritionist. This can be a problem when the food isn’t being prepared and regulated by our cooking staff. For me right now, that means I get to eat pizza and dessert again, and I do more snacking.
A few weeks ago, I did a skit on Comedy Central for the show “Key and Peele,” along with my Jets teammate Leger Douzable and Prince Amukamara from the New York Giants. In the skit, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele portray fictitious players with unusual names like Cosgrove Shumway, Splendiferous Finch and Vagonius Thicket-Suede, and they brought us in for some real-life examples.
With a name like D’Brickashaw, I made the cut (I think the apostrophe helps most with the humor). The skit aired this week, and I was laughing at all the crazy names they came up with. Now I just hope my mother found it funny too.
In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, there are always activities that players can get involved in. I went this year to an event in Manhattan at Jets House, where fans can get to know the team better. This year, former Jets players Eric Coleman (whom I played with) and Bruce Harper attended. I was also on a panel with my current teammate Chris Ivory.
There were lots of questions about the new Jets staff and about Rex Ryan taking the head coaching job in Buffalo. I told the fans that I hadn’t met any of the new Jets staff yet but am excited for the chance to begin working with them and the opportunity we have this season.
As far as Rex Ryan is concerned, I know that playing the Bills will be an intense matchup for us. I played for Coach Ryan for six years, and this will be the first time in a long while that we won’t be wearing the green and white Jets emblem together. I wish him luck—just not when he is playing against us.
Watching the Super Bowl is always interesting to me. As a left tackle, you get used to watching the game through a different lens. During a regular week of game preparation, players are encouraged to review the scouting report on the other team and to watch film with their position group (in my case, with other linemen) to get a better feel for our opponents.
Most players also watch film on their own to look for tendencies and analyze techniques of the defender for their individual matchup. That way, you can take what you’ve learned and begin to apply it on the field during practice.
For the Super Bowl, I try to watch the game more from a fan’s perspective, so I just follow the ball. It gives me a chance to really watch all the spectacular catches and runs—which I often don’t see during a game when I’m playing.
But sometimes my working mind gets in the way. I’ll see a miscommunication on the offensive line or a great move by a defensive player, and I imagine how I might have responded. Would I have gotten beat, or would I have been able to adjust in time to stop the defender? It’s hard to know how I would react. What I do know is that I’d like the Jets to be one of the teams competing for the Lombardi trophy one day."
—Mr. Ferguson plays left tackle for the New York