BRADY SMITH WATCHED DWIGHT FREENEY from a safe distance. Close enough not to miss anything but far enough away to keep from looking like one of them--the hordes of onlookers who represent an unnecessary distraction to the notoriously private superstar defensive end from the Indianapolis Colts.
"Listen, man," he says, liberally sprinkling sea salt onto a hunk of bison steak, which accounts for the lion's share of a diet specifically tailored to his blood type. "I played four years in college, and spending [nine] years in the NFL means I've played two more full college careers after that. When your body takes that kind of abuse, you've got to take care of it. This is a marathon now."There's no rags-to-riches redemption tale here, though. Freeney's transition to football was never the story of some diamond-in-the-rough kid who was set on a righteous path through the lessons he learned on the gridiron. The work ethic and ferocity that render him virtually unstoppable to offensive tackles a head taller and 50 pounds heavier were in place even as a high school freshman.For NFL teams, drafting players has become a high-stakes proposition over the past few decades. When you combine exorbitant player salaries and bonuses with the impact a high draft pick can have on a team's future success, franchises stand to gain--or, perhaps more important, lose--hundreds of millions of dollars based on individual personnel decisions. Football executives take their jobs seriously, and they perform their due diligence regarding the background and character of players they're considering.Freeney's marathon consists of caring for his body, studying his opponents' every nuance and making sure all the pieces of the puzzle are in place to keep his magnificent run--with his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame already assured--going as long as possible. "I like getting away from things and going to places like California to train because everyone's in a workout frame of mind, and that's all I need to think about without all the distractions," he says. "New York isn't workout-friendly. When you see someone running there, chances are he's running from the cops."Perhaps it was because Smith had kept his distance long enough to gain some degree of trust. Or maybe it was because Freeney wants to see football played the right way. His way. There could've been any number of reasons why he stayed on that field with Smith, running full speed through another hour of the same brutally taxing football drills, showing the young player the right way to get things done. Paying it forward.Over the past nine years, Freeney has left a trail of broken tackles and tight ends in his wake, crushed and befuddled by his patented repertoire of spin moves and bull-rushes, but it's the quarterback they're charged with protecting who has borne the brunt of Freeney's fury. With 89 career sacks at press time, he has joined the NFL's all-time leaders in the category and in the process essentially redefined the position of defensive end, long the province of men much taller and heavier than the 6'1", 268-pound Freeney.Anyone who has followed Freeney's career since his Syracuse days is familiar with his weight-room reputation. His bench, squat and clean numbers are still legendary in college football circles. After battling in the NFL trenches for nine years, however, that type of training doesn't exactly align with Freeney's stated goal of career longevity. "Am I strong enough?" he asks. "Absolutely, Fm strong enough. Nobody cares how much you squat or clean or how fast you run the 40 in the NFL. I know what I used to bench, but now? I'm going to lift that heavy and risk blowing out a pec muscle and being out for the season? That's not smart.""Bloomfield gets a bad rap in Connecticut because of our diversity," Waszkelewicz says. "But the way Dwight makes up for his lack of height and size with sheer determination is a perfect fit for this town and always has been. He was the perfect student from day one. You never had to worry about Dwight. He's just a natural."From Bloomfield High School in Connecticut to Syracuse University (New York) to nine years with the Indianapolis Colts, Freeney has been rock-solid since the day he first stepped on an athletic field. In fact, it was his prowess as a ninth-grade soccer goalie that first garnered the attention of the football coaches at Bloomfield.Under Capretta's supervision, Freeney and several other NFL players regularly run through a series of outdoor conditioning drills in the hills behind Agoura High School (Agoura Hills, California). He'll flip tires, run hill sprints and work on his get-off"--the speed and explosiveness with which he can come out of a three-point stance--in a sand pit restrained by bungee cords.Waszkelewicz tells the story of a playoff game in Freeney's junior year. He doesn't remember who Bloomfield played; it could've been either Branford or North Branford, but that's not important. What's important is it was a Friday-night game with rented lights, a packed house and the crisp air of autumn electricity unique to small-town New England football in late November."If I play against a veteran guy I know I have to bring it," he says. "I can't wait to play against a young boy from a learning-curve standpoint He's got to catch up, and believe me, I'm gonna catch him up as fast as I can.""Dwight was playing fullback," Waszkelewicz says. "He took the ball outside the tackle and one of their cornerbacks stepped up to make a play. He came up and hit Dwight solidly in the thigh and it was like everything just stopped. You could hear the sound of that hit throughout the stadium; everyone just gasped. Dwight crushed the kid. We knew then he was something special.""Dwight's an old-school guy," Capretta says. "He wants to go all-out all the time, but when you've been in the NFL as long as he has, you have to find a way to keep that fire under your ass without burning yourself out It's really about staying powerful as he gets fatigued without heaping unnecessary abuse on him at this stage of his career."The public wouldn't understand what Freeney was doing in a small bedroom community 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles and 3,000 miles away from his home in Connecticut. Smith knew, but the idea of seeing arguably the NFL's most intimidating player--one who has mastered the same position Smith plays on the junior-college level at nearby Moorpark College--toiling away in obscurity on his high school field was enough to make him skittish about approaching.A Super Bowl ring and five Pro Bowl appearances later, Freeney has the life of a professional athlete down to a science. From his finances to his training to the blinders he uses to keep the outside world at bay, the guy could write the book on how things should be done. You never hear of Freeney's exploits off the field because with the exception of his charity work, his mind and spirit essentially never leave the field."Dwight was dog-tired that day," remembers Ryan Capretta, one of Freeney's two off-season strength and conditioning coaches. "I mean, his bag drills are just ridiculous. And you have to remember, Dwight is a really 'to himself type of guy, so it probably wasn't the best time for Brady to come up and ask him a question."Freeney's weight-room foundation, through years of work with legendary Syracuse University strength and conditioning coach Bill Hicks, was already well-established by the time he started spending parts of his off-season in California with Capretta."We had about 23 kids on the team at the time," says Paul Waszkelewicz, Freeney's high school defensive-line coach. "It was true, old-school iron-man football, so we were always on the lookout for new guys. The first thing that stood out about Dwight as a soccer goalie was he was big, quick and had great hands. We knew we had to have him playing football."
For NFL teams, drafting players has become a high-stakes proposition over the past few decades. When you combine exorbitant player salaries and bonuses with the impact a high draft pick can have on a team's future success, franchises stand to gain--or, perhaps more important, lose--hundreds of millions of dollars based on individual personnel decisions. Football executives take their jobs seriously, and they perform their due diligence regarding the background and character of players they're considering.
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