The relentless pounding that beats him up and wears him down is still the sweetest tonic for Bears right guard Roberto Garza.
Give an offensive lineman a game like Sunday’s 10-0 victory over the New York Jets, with 35 running plays for 173 yards and an average of 4.9 yards per carry, and Garza is no less satisfied than a wide receiver after a game-winning touchdown catch.
“Obviously we want more success early on,” Garza says of the scoreless first half, “but we enjoy pounding the football. That’s what we love to do.”
Garza and his linemates huddled on the bench, constantly making adjustments in an effort to catch up to the array of alignments and blitzes the Jets were throwing at them. Some they anticipated, some they did not.
“The preparation is a big part of what we do because they show a lot of tendencies,” he says. “But on Sundays everything’s different when you’re on the field and you’re seeing it live.”
Monday
Garza cannot sleep. Too “geeked up.” But this is nothing unusual after a game. What is annoying is that the team buses pulled into Halas Hall at 4 a.m. after the Bears’ victory over the Giants. At 7:30 a.m., there is no other choice for Garza but to get up and get back to work.
Players’ attendance at Halas Hall is not required on “Victory Monday,” but Garza’s routine calls for a stretch and a workout with training partner and fellow offensive lineman John Tait, followed by the ice tub for 20 minutes and the hot tub for 20. Alone, Garza holes up in the linemen’s meeting room and watches film of the Giants game, identifying errors he needs to correct. Back home in the early afternoon, Garza says hello to wife Ashley and flops down on the couch for a long nap.
“That feels so good,” he says. “The week is so long that sometimes just laying on the couch is the best medicine.”
He conks out for the night in the first quarter of the Monday night game. “Usually I can’t stay up very late on Mondays, I’m so exhausted,” he laughs.
Tuesday
Players’ day off, but Garza is back at Halas stretched out on a massage table, his Tuesday routine. Then it’s back to the alternating ice and hot tubs. At noon, Garza tapes his “Football 101” segment for Telemundo, which takes close to 90 minutes to complete.
“It’s a lot more work than I expected,” he says. “But I enjoy it because a lot of people like football but don’t know the particulars, and just being able to demonstrate what’s going on hopefully helps them compare it to soccer and relate to it a little bit more.”
Tuesdays are often filled with charity work for a player the Bears have nominated for NFL Man of the Year.
“It does get to be a lot,” Garza says. “You’re tired, but knowing you can hopefully make a difference, that’s why you sacrifice a little.”
Garza does more TV later in the day, then goes out for dinner with Ashley. No one recognizes Garza at the restaurant, or if they do, no one asks for an autograph.
“Some places I do [get recognized], but not where it’s a big deal,” Garza says. “It’s just fun to talk to the fans, and then obviously giving autographs is always pretty cool.”
Wednesday
Garza is out of the house by 7 a.m., in time for breakfast at Halas Hall before a special-teams meeting at 8. Breakfast is the same every day for Garza: cereal, pancakes, an omelet and orange juice.
“I feel good with it and I’ve stuck to it,” he says. “It’s kind of like part of my routine now.”
The Bears meet as a team at 8:40, followed by a meeting for the offense. Then they break into position rooms. Garza gets in a quick lifting session before a walk-through at 11:30.
Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand is quick and efficient, the better to get his guys into the weight room as soon as possible. The offense installs the first part of its game plan, going over running plays for the Jets game.
Wednesdays are tough, Garza says, because players must push past physical and mental fatigue to focus on the new game plan. On every play, offensive linemen study each potential defense, blitz options and opponents’ techniques as well as their own blocking assignments.
“Every play has its own little tweak, and then from week to week it changes and you start from scratch,” he says.
Against the Jets, the Bears will face three down linemen, so they study previous opponents and the techniques they used. In the three-down, the center and tackles are covered, so Garza primarily will be blocking linebackers and defensive ends. With center Olin Kreutz covered, Garza must read the linebackers. Fortunately, Garza says, he is working with “the best” in Kreutz.
“The way he attacks everybody and just moves people off the ball, it makes me look better,” Garza says. “He knows when the blitz is coming and where it’s coming from. And he knows how to watch film and say, `OK, against this guy we have to not run sideways as much, we have to go more into the defender.’ It’s invaluable because every guy is different.”
After practice it’s back into the hot and cold tubs, then another workout with Tait and hand drills with Tait, Kreutz, Terrence Metcalf and Anthony Oakley, who work on repositioning their hands when defensive players break them down in pass protection.
More couch time at home at night, where the Garzas watch the finale of “Dancing with the Stars.”
“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” he laughs. “I was a big Cowboys fan growing up, so I had to pull for Emmitt (Smith, the eventual winner). But Mario Lopez, `Saved by the Bell,’ it was a tough matchup.”
Thursday
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Weigh-in day. Garza has no worries. “I’ve never been fined for my weight my entire career,” he says. “This is your job. Your body is your job.”
And at this point in the season, the job hurts. “Your whole body just aches from your toes to your neck, every joint, your elbows, wrists, knees, lower back, everything,” Garza says.
Garza does his regular Thursday morning phone interview for La Ley, a Spanish radio station. Then it’s breakfast and meetings. As is usually the case, Thursday’s practice is more polished. They practice in the bubble, but Garza wishes it were outside.
“The turf inside seems to hurt a little more,” he says.
Friday
Get in and get out. That’s the theme for Friday. Special-teams meeting, more film review of practice, walk-through at 10:30, practice at 11:30 with emphasis on nickel, red-zone, short-yardage and goal-line offenses, then out by 1 p.m.
Friday is another day to rest. And to study. Garza tries to combine them. Each player is given a DVD of game film, and Garza watches most of his Friday night. Ashley reads a book next to her husband as he studies.
“We have our own routine, but it’s kind of both our day to relax at home together,” Garza says.
Saturday
Garza arrives at Halas Hall with his teammates at 9 a.m. The offense watches Friday’s practice, reviews the game plan, then walks through about a dozen plays planned for use against the Jets. “The fine-tuning is so important, little details that can make or break the play,” Garza says.
The team flies to Newark, N.J., in the afternoon. Under Lovie Smith’s regime, captains and players who require the most room–offensive and defensive linemen–sit in first-class, while coaches and the rest of the team are in coach.
At the hotel, Garza and all players with five years of service or more get private rooms. While some players go out to dinner, Garza prefers to stay in his room and order room service. He favors pasta the night before games. After meetings, there’s a team snack at 9–Garza always has cereal–and then curfew at 11.
Sunday
Before home games Garza likes to arrive at the stadium early. “I get nervous when I rush,” he says. On the road he arrives with the team, puts on his iPod, goes over last-minute plays, stretches, then starts the first phases of taping.
Again, each player has his own routine. Garza has his ankles taped, gets partially dressed, then has more tape placed around the outside of his cleats in a further attempt to avoid sprained ankles, or at least minimize a sprain if it occurs. Next he puts on a large knee brace to support the joint lacking an ACL, then has both elbows, wrists, hands and fingers taped.
Garza also has double-sided tape between his shoulder pads and jersey so defenders “can’t grab and move us and shake us on pass-rush moves,” he explains. “I don’t know if I’m superstitious, but with 16 games, you want to have the same thing every week so you feel comfortable, confident and that everything is working the way it should be.”
On his iPod, Garza favors a mix of blues and comedy (George Lopez and Dave Chappelle are favorites). The pregame locker room is loose.
“Everybody is having a good time getting ready for the game, and that’s the way it should be,” he says. “There’s no reason to get quiet. That’s when you start getting nervous. It’s a game, it’s what we do, and [we should] go out there and have fun.
“It’s the best day of the week because you go out on the field, there’s 60,000 screaming fans, you’re playing with your teammates, the guys you share blood, sweat and tears with, and you want to go out there and win the game together.”
It’s the fourth quarter until that is secured. Afterward Smith lauds the “super job” by a veteran line that clears the way for 121 rushing yards on 23 carries by Thomas Jones and 51 by Cedric Benson on 10 carries.
“Watching film is totally different than being out there on the field and actually doing it,” Garza says. “This wasn’t a pretty game. They mixed up all their fronts, gave us some different blitzes, and it took us time to adjust to what they were doing. But we kept pounding the football. We stuck with it.”
It’s what they love to do.
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