SE: K-State Football Prepares Players for Longevity in the NFL
Jan 26, 2017 | Football
The following story is the second part of a two-part feature on three former K-State football players now in the NFL — Tyler Lockett, Terence Newman and Darren Sproles. To read the first part, click here.
Tyler Lockett remembers his first practice with the Seattle Seahawks very well. Specifically, he recalls one thought when it ended.
“Practice is over?” Lockett remembers asking, surprised it was so short — roughly 90 minutes to two hours. “Then I went and did extra work.”
Lockett, who recently finished his second year in the NFL, said he felt, at the time, like he needed to do more. At least, he was used to putting in more time at K-State, a place he points to when asked how former Wildcats, like Terence Newman and Darren Sproles, last so long in the NFL.
“We’ve done way more at Kansas State than we’ll ever do in the NFL, meaning the time that we have to prepare for certain things, the way that we practice, the way that we do certain things was so mundane,” Lockett said. “It’s so long that it tests you, mentally, to the extreme, but once you make it out of Kansas State, however long you decide to stay there, the NFL is a lot easier… it’s not as hard.”
Added Sproles, who recently finished his 12th NFL season and third with the Philadelphia Eagles: “When you can make it through a Bill Snyder practice, when you get to the next level, those practices are nothing.”
Newman, who, at 38, was the second-oldest defensive player in the NFL during the 2016 season, and Sproles, now 33 and the league’s third-oldest running back, have possessed three critical factors — talent enough for an NFL contract, physical health and a strong mental drive — longer than most players.
According to the NFL Players’ Association, the average career in the NFL is 3.3 years. A Wall Street Journal article, citing data from Pro-Football-Reference.com, stated a drop in the average NFL career from 4.99 years to 2.66.
Whatever the source, Newman and Sproles have far exceeded the norm for any NFL player — not to mention the positions they play.
“I think we’ve both been blessed, that’s number one, but I think it’s because of the work we put in during the offseason,” Sproles said. “That’s what I think has kept us going for so many years.”
Sproles’ offseason work, still performed at Fitness Quest 10 under Todd Durkin in San Diego, California, his original NFL home with the Chargers, has been well documented for its intensity. Durkin’s “Terrible Treadmill Challenge,” designed to create quickness by running full speed on an incline, is more often referred to as the Darren Sproles Treadmill Challenge.
Newman, the oldest cornerback in the NFL by nearly five years, has also followed the mindset of “whatever it takes” throughout his career, which includes everything from sleeping and eating habits to an individually-focused offseason regimen and intensely studying film during the season.
“It’s not often that you get a corner my age who has a chance to come in and, let alone play football, but have an opportunity to start. So my mentality was more so, ‘Hey, I got this opportunity. I need to do everything in my power to make it,’” Newman said. “I have to do everything that I can. I have to stay later, or whatever it is, I need to do extra just to be able to have some type of an advantage.”
It’s not always about spending more time doing something, either, Newman said. Often, it’s about becoming more effective with certain tasks and evolving in how to utilize each one. Take watching film, for example.
“I think I’m more effective at how I do it and what I’m looking for,” he said. “I watch pretty much the same amount of film, it’s just a routine, but what I look for has kind of changed since I was a rookie when I got into the league. Where I used to look at one deal, now I look at the whole gamut and try to dissect as much as possible. Even the most minute thing, I’m looking at it, trying to find some type of an advantage.”
Whatever the method, Sproles and Newman have prevailed as rarities, not only in age, but also in their production.
Sproles received a career-high 94 carries this season for 438 yards, his second-highest rushing total for a season, while also reeling in 52 passes for 427 yards that included his second-longest receiving touchdown ever, at 73 yards. Combined, the 5-foot-6 running back’s 865 yards from scrimmage in the 2016 season was the third-best total of his career. He also averaged a career-best 13.2 yards on 17 punt returns this season, highlighted by two for more than 40 yards.
“He’s just an amazing player. His drive, you have to be able to have a drive still, playing in the league as long as he’s played. He’s done so many spectacular things,” Lockett said. “There’s just so many great things you can say about him. He’s a great person on the field; he’s a great person off the field. He still has his speed. He still has his feet and everything to be explosive. This is a guy that has already played past 10 years, and not too many guys still look the same from when they first came in.”
For his career, Sproles ranks eighth in NFL history for all-purpose yardage. His 19,011 all-purpose yards stands ahead of Barry Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member, and LaDainian Tomlinson, whose announcement as a HOF inductee is expected in a few weeks.
With another healthy and productive year, Sproles should pass Steve Smith Sr., Marshall Faulk and Tim Brown on the career all-purpose yards list. Not that he would ever boast about such accomplishments.
“He’s more quiet. He doesn’t say much. He just always minded his own business and was a very hard and diligent worker,” Newman said of his former teammate at K-State. “You could tell that just by watching him in the weight room, how strong he was. You could see he put a lot of time and effort into that, and he’s just a good all-around person.”
This season, Sproles became the only player in NFL history to have at least 30 receiving touchdowns, 20 rushing touchdowns, one punt return touchdown and one kick return score.
“He’s one of most productive players in the NFL at the running back position and he’s doing it at being 5-6, so that’s not something you see very often,” Newman said. “He does it in multiple facets — in the return game, running the ball out of the backfield, catching the ball out of the backfield and lining up as a receiver. He’s literally a threat at any position any time he gets the ball in his hands.”
Newman has also aged well, much like his drink of choice: red wine.
According to Pro Football Focus, which graded Newman out as the ninth-best cornerback in the league, the 14-year NFL veteran finished his second season with the Minnesota Vikings allowing zero passes of more than 50 yards. In seven games, he allowed single-digit receiving yards and, for the season, he allowed 0.57 yards per snap in coverage, the lowest for any cornerback in the league.
“He’s still doing so many great things,” said Lockett, who has played against Newman three times — twice in the preseason, once in the regular season and in the 2015 Wild Card Round of the playoffs. “I got the opportunity to play against one of the best players in K-State history. I’ll be able to tell my family and be able to tell my kids, when I have kids, that I went against one of the best players at Kansas State who played more than 10 years before me. For me, it was something that I will be able to look back on and just be happy about it and be able to able to acknowledge the fact that I went against Terence Newman.”
Newman, an unrestricted free agent in March, said during the season he’s never set a goal for how many years he would stay in the league. As long as his body feels up to it, he’s mentally strong enough to endure the grind of the NFL and a team wants him, expect the savvy veteran to keep shutting down players often born more than a decade after him.
“I’ve never set a number,” Newman, who Pro Football Focus ranks as the second-best UFA cornerback for 2017, said of how many years he would like to play. “You have to have somebody that wants you to play, gives you a chance to compete.”
“I don’t think there’s any signs of him slowing down,’’ Viking safety Harrison Smith told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. “I don’t think age is really a factor with him. He’s making more plays than a lot of young guys. At the end of day, he’s out there balling.’’
Sproles, with one more year left on his contract with the Eagles, announced that 2017 would be his final season in the NFL.
“My kids, they want their daddy home a little bit more,” said Sproles, a father to two daughters, said of his reason for setting 2017 as his last season.
It will end a decorated football career for Sproles, who helped lead K-State to its first Big 12 Championship in 2003 and has continuously shown how far hard work, dedication and persistence can take someone.
“It pretty much has been a dream come true,” Sproles, who will make his third Pro Bowl appearance on Sunday, said. “I’ve had many people doubt me, but I feel like I have proven a lot of doubters wrong.”
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