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Cowboys' Andre Gurode: Worst part of camp is being the fat guy
09:49 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Andre Gurode spoke on an interview with KESN-FM on Tuesday to discuss the Cowboys leading up the training camp. Here are some highlights:
Do you still get excited for training camp or has it lost its charm over the years? Man, it’s something you always get excited about. I mean, it’s good to see the guys and I’m excited to get back to work. I’m excited for the next couple of weeks.
And when does the excitement wear off? After seeing the guys, I would say a few weeks and you get tired of looking at them. You’re ready to get somebody else but it’s very exciting to get back to work though. You’re ready to just…if they could shorten training camp down and go straight into the season, I’m quite sure a lot of players would be happy about that.
What is absolute worst thing about training camp? I would say the one thing that is so dreadful about training camp is the conditioning test, for a fat guy. For a skinny guy, it’s probably easy. For a big guy, we all hate the conditioning test.
What are the requirements of the conditioning test? Hold on now. We don’t have conditioning tests now. When we used to have a conditioning test, we had to run 3-three hundred yard trips.
And what do they do now for conditioning? When we have our third stringers out there, we’re working out there and running around. And our conditioning is running from drill to drill and running in between the drills. So, you traded in running one test for running for a whole entire practice. I don’t know how that evens out but it seems like running for a whole practice and running in between drills to drills, it’s a little bit more tiring than running that conditioning test.
The Cowboys will soon be leaving for a seven city tour. Is it going to be tough or it is fun in that it breaks things up? It’s one of those things that we’ll definitely get used to, I’m quite sure. It’ll be a little tiring but we’ve had training camp in Oxnard and San Antonio, so I think we have enough in the tank for the pre-season games, the Hall-of-Fame game, where they’ll be inducting Emmitt Smith into the Hall-of-Fame, and then we’ll turn back around and go to Oxnard and finish up training camp there. And then we’ll come back and have a week or so in Dallas.
Is the pressure of possibly playing the Super Bowl at home already being felt or is that an expectation always associated with the Cowboys? I think we expect that of ourselves but with the season coming along, I think Dallas is thinking of having a successful season, making it to the playoffs and then getting to the Super Bowl. I can’t really put the Super Bowl in front of anything because we haven’t earned it. We haven’t put our hands in the dirt and we haven’t run one play yet. So, it may be an idea for a lot of guys on the team, but I’m quite sure we’re staying focused on having the best team go out on the field and playing those games.
In reviewing the tapes from last year, is there anything that really jumped out that the offensive line could improve upon? We have to continue working on our techniques and continue working on our footwork. And we have to continue to work on being a cohesive unit. And that’s what we’ve been working on all throughout the season. Even the guys on the second string have been working hard to catch up with the first group, so everybody is just trying to work on getting better.
09:49 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Andre Gurode spoke on an interview with KESN-FM on Tuesday to discuss the Cowboys leading up the training camp. Here are some highlights:
Do you still get excited for training camp or has it lost its charm over the years? Man, it’s something you always get excited about. I mean, it’s good to see the guys and I’m excited to get back to work. I’m excited for the next couple of weeks.
And when does the excitement wear off? After seeing the guys, I would say a few weeks and you get tired of looking at them. You’re ready to get somebody else but it’s very exciting to get back to work though. You’re ready to just…if they could shorten training camp down and go straight into the season, I’m quite sure a lot of players would be happy about that.
What is absolute worst thing about training camp? I would say the one thing that is so dreadful about training camp is the conditioning test, for a fat guy. For a skinny guy, it’s probably easy. For a big guy, we all hate the conditioning test.
What are the requirements of the conditioning test? Hold on now. We don’t have conditioning tests now. When we used to have a conditioning test, we had to run 3-three hundred yard trips.
And what do they do now for conditioning? When we have our third stringers out there, we’re working out there and running around. And our conditioning is running from drill to drill and running in between the drills. So, you traded in running one test for running for a whole entire practice. I don’t know how that evens out but it seems like running for a whole practice and running in between drills to drills, it’s a little bit more tiring than running that conditioning test.
The Cowboys will soon be leaving for a seven city tour. Is it going to be tough or it is fun in that it breaks things up? It’s one of those things that we’ll definitely get used to, I’m quite sure. It’ll be a little tiring but we’ve had training camp in Oxnard and San Antonio, so I think we have enough in the tank for the pre-season games, the Hall-of-Fame game, where they’ll be inducting Emmitt Smith into the Hall-of-Fame, and then we’ll turn back around and go to Oxnard and finish up training camp there. And then we’ll come back and have a week or so in Dallas.
Is the pressure of possibly playing the Super Bowl at home already being felt or is that an expectation always associated with the Cowboys? I think we expect that of ourselves but with the season coming along, I think Dallas is thinking of having a successful season, making it to the playoffs and then getting to the Super Bowl. I can’t really put the Super Bowl in front of anything because we haven’t earned it. We haven’t put our hands in the dirt and we haven’t run one play yet. So, it may be an idea for a lot of guys on the team, but I’m quite sure we’re staying focused on having the best team go out on the field and playing those games.
In reviewing the tapes from last year, is there anything that really jumped out that the offensive line could improve upon? We have to continue working on our techniques and continue working on our footwork. And we have to continue to work on being a cohesive unit. And that’s what we’ve been working on all throughout the season. Even the guys on the second string have been working hard to catch up with the first group, so everybody is just trying to work on getting better.