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The Aging Process
Shawn Springs and his father Ron still talk about what would happen if they had squared off on the football field.
(Helayne Seidman - For The Washington Post)
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Springs, 6 feet, 204 pounds, works out in a flat, characterless office park that sits anonymously against striking red clay mesas in North Scottsdale, Ariz. At Performance Enhancement Professionals, each of his 90-minute workouts is dedicated to a specific area: lower body big muscles on Monday, upper body on Tuesdays. Wednesdays focus on the small muscles of the upper body, with the lower body small muscles on Thursdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Springs adds Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga: 26 traditional yoga exercises designed for flexibility and mental cleansing with one grueling twist -- the 90-minute sessions are performed inside a 100-degree room.
"I can't," Springs said one March morning panting to regain his breath, "let any of these young guys think they can take my job.
"The whole key to playing cornerback in this league is being able to run," he continued. "When you look at a guy, and you start to assess whether he's losing it or not, the first question is whether he can run. Can he cover? I can still run. If you can run, you can play. . . . I can play five more years, at least."
He pulls 45 pounds of dead weight, driven by the appearance of vulnerability and the shadow of age. Days earlier, he celebrated his 32nd birthday. These flexibility drills, he said, will sharpen his burst, his quickness.
"I'm going to have the best year of my career. I have to," Springs said between explosiveness drills, sounding like a boxer in training. He is talking to himself as much as anyone else in the room. "Everybody thinks I'm finished. The only way to prove them wrong is come out and ball."
Springs's personal trainer, Ian Danney, a former Canadian Olympic bobsledder, thinks Gibbs's decision to allow veterans to work out on their own rather than at Redskins Park last winter will pay dividends for Springs this year.
"There are decisions that are made for the team, and decisions that are made for the individuals," Danney said. "The Redskins wanted everyone in Washington for team building, but Shawn really needed to be here. He's at that stage where athletes can go in either direction. If you stay dedicated to it now, you can keep playing. Shawn is a professional. His dedication keeps going. If you don't, that's when guys fall off. But it starts here."
On the stretching table at the gym is Ryan Clark, the former Redskins safety who signed as a free agent with Pittsburgh following the 2005 season when the Redskins would not match the $1.5 million raise the Steelers offered. (Brandon Lloyd, the Redskins' wide receiver, also works out with Springs.) The Redskins are a sore subject with Clark, who never wanted to leave Washington.
"I don't have too much to say that hasn't already been said," Clark said, his Bluetooth cellphone receiver blinking in his right ear. "This is a business. The Redskins made a business decision. Sometimes this game is a business."
Springs corrected him.
"Sometimes during this business," he said, "we play a game."
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