Lelie cops get-tough attitude

[footstepsfrom#27]

An example of the gains he made could be seen in the bench press. Whereas he previously could do a single repetition, or maybe two, lifting 225 pounds, this off-season he was doing three sets of 225 seven or eight times.

WOW! I find it amazing that a guy who got drafted in the 1st round was benching less than most high school guys can at his weight...and it brings up an obvious question; how does he NOT plug into the fact that he needs the weight room LONG before he's been in the NFL for several years? I started pumping iron the first week of camp my sophmore year in high school when as a skinny 170 pound safety I was getting blasted into oblivion by linemen 80 pounds bigger than me. I never stopped and pumped my way all the way to 205 and raised my bench by 130 pounds because I wanted to be the one dishing out the punishment instead of receiving it. It's called MOTIVATION! We'd work out for hours every day to the point of total exhaustion and this was not something optional or unusual. Fact is...if you weren't in the weight room every day working your a** off to impress the coaches, you probably weren't going to see the field because they were in there also and knew who was and who wasn't committed. This was 30 years ago!! I thought all these guys came up with more advanced weight training methods and nutritional technology than we had. If you look at the preponderance of 300 pound linemen now coming out of high school when 20 years ago it was extremely rare, you have to figure that it's either steroids or the weights+nutrition (perhaps both) doing this. So I'm wondering how Lelie has even been allowed to avoid the weights with the Broncos until now. In fact how has he even SURVIVED in the NFL with a puny 225 bench? I'm amazed he hasn't been living on IR with these kind of numbers. Well better late than never I guess. Let's hope he's finally woke up. This kind of tells me something about this guy though. If you're making millions and your body is your meal ticket, it seems like nobody would have to tell you to get in the weight room. It also seems like a lack of motivation is the only reason for not doing this a long time ago. That says something disturbing about character. I hope that along with Ashley's sudden realization that he needs to hit the weights is also coming an understanding that you get to the be the best with Rod Smith's work ethic, not just talent.