Building Calluses: Titans Getting to Work

The Tennessee Titans are putting in some work out there.

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Damn, them Tennessee Titans boys are out there puttin’ in WORK this week. I mean, shit – I don’t see many, if any, other NFL teams that are going quite this hard in May. Should someone tell them that they don’t have to do this? No, no, no – I’m kidding. I know this is all apart of the master plan. We’ve heard head coach Mike Vrabel talk about building calluses before when he talked about certain players maybe kind of sort of not doing the necessary things to harden and strengthen their bodies and getting injured more easily as a result. I get that. And, it certainly appears as though those aren’t just hollow words – it’s apart of this team’s identity, and the guy that is willing to get out there and go hard af in May is the exact type of guy that Vrabel wants on this football team.

Holy shit – this feels like some sort of prison video. Is this an episode of Scared Straight? You got guys grimacing, gritting their teeth, falling to the ground, pushing with everything they got. It’s raw energy. I don’t know how to explain it but this is one of those sex workouts. You know…when you hit the gym when you think you might be getting laid that night and you have to put in a workout for the ages. Gotta have all the angles lookin’ just right! That’s what this is, but these guys are out here doing it everyday…not once every 18 months like me.

And, I’m no professional athlete, but I totally understand the importance of building calluses. I callused my feet up so bad in my teenage years that I rarely had to spend money on shoes. I’d just be walking down the gravel driveway to check the mail barefoot. I’d walk barefoot through the snow. Hell, one time my feet were so Hobbit-esque (they’re still Hobbit-esque actually…I just wear flip-flops more now so they’ve weakened a bit) that I stepped on a thumbtack while working out barefoot and the tack bent without piercing my skin. So, I get it. You have to think of it as an investment. You’re building that hard body so that nothing breaks it down when it matters most, like when you step on a thumbtack barefoot, or when you find yourself on the road in the NFL playoffs in January. Same difference.

But, also….like….this has been the most injured team in the NFL for two years running now. They were historically injured in 2021. Is this the right course of action? I think it’s an interesting question because you can’t help but wonder that if this has been the plan all along under Vrabel, what does it say about the results? Or, it could be a matter of getting the right type of players in – let the guys who aren’t willing to work to toughen their body go, get in a new crop of talent that is willing to work and build those calluses, and maybe the results will be different. Only time will tell, but shit, for now, I’m tired just from watching that video.

New Titans offensive lineman Daniel Brunskill shed some light on this philosophy to AtoZ Sports Nashville in a way that is much more illuminating than my stupid jokes:

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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

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