Be nice to the guy asking for a spot at the gym, he could be a member of the Dolphins.Next time you go to your local gym, be on the lookout for Miami Dolphins. With the NFL’s ongoing lockout nearly a month old, football players who might have otherwise worked out at team facilities during the offseason have found new workout spots, including an LA Fitness in Plantation.
A number of Dolphins, including WRs Davone Bess and Roberto Wallace, have been using the gym franchise to hold unofficial workouts with their teammates, the Miami Herald reported.After a glimmer of hope, the on-again, off-again National Football League lockout went back on again last week, much to the dismay of NFL fans, players and coaches. Instead of training in their team’s facility, players resumed working out wherever they could—perhaps even at your club.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen Jacksonville Jaguars at a Lifestyle Family Fitness, Philadelphia Eagles at a local aquatic and fitness center, St. Louis Rams at Emerge Fitness and a New Orleans Saints free agent at Elmwood Fitness Center.
Miami Dolphins have worked out at an LA Fitness in Miami, and an assortment of players from other teams, including New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker, are working out with a personal trainer amongst senior citizens at a Miami-area JCC.
“Everyone here is really, really friendly,” one NFL player says in this video shot at the JCC. “Besides them looking at us like we’re giants, that’s about it.”
Have your members rubbed elbows with locked-out NFL players who are now locked in at your club? If so, how do they interact with them?
Autographs probably aren’t the best way to go. Too much sweat would smear the ink.
(UPDATE: Several members of the Denver Broncos are working out at Greenwood Athletic and Tennis Club, Greenwood Village, CO. Pictured above with group exercise instructor Sherri Weaver-Fast are Broncos Manny Ramirez, Zane Beadles and J.D. Walton, who had just completed Sherri’s Bosu Complete class. Not pictured, but who also works out at Greenwood: Tim Tebow.)A Herald reporter shot video of one of these public workouts and posted it to YouTube (see below). “If you stay ready you ain’t gotta get ready,” Bess said at a workout.Springtime is usually when NFL players are getting geared up for Organized Team Activities (OTAs), the offseason workouts and minicamps where players work out with their team and new acquisitions get up to speed on their team’s schemes and systems. Public workouts are not quite as structured as OTAs, but they do give players a chance to stay in game shape during the labor dispute.
However, running unofficial workouts carries its own risk. The Sun-Sentinel spoke to superagent Drew Rosenhaus, who noted that players injured in unofficial workouts during the lockout could be released by their teams. “It’s not a sanctioned activity,” he told the Sentinel, “so if a guy goes out there and blows his knee, the team can say they’ve decided not to pay your contract this year. It’s very risky.”
For that reason, Rosenhaus and other agents advise their clients to work out at professional facilities where they have access to trainers and medical staff. The Herald reported that Brandon Marshall, for instance, has been working out at Fit Speed Sports Performance in Fort Lauderdale.Regardless, this phenomenon of pro football players hitting the same gym as us regular people does give locals an extra incentive to wipe down the bench after finishing some presses. You would hate to inadvertently give Jake Long ringworm.