One thing that does remain consistent with my preparation before the game is that I never ever sleep well the night before. No matter how tired I am from a long day of meetings, going to the movies and more meetings, I am almost always wide eyed lying in my bed. Even with the game being well over 24 hours till kickoff, my heart is pounding and my mind envisions the plays my teammates and I will make and even the plays that may go wrong during the game. This keeps me up much longer than I would like. I played in 11 am games this past year with about 3 hours of sleep; however, I enjoy the feeling. It is something I miss now that we are in the “off-season.”
Regardless what time I go to sleep, I am always refreshed when I wake up. The best feeling to me is waking up at about 6 am with a high adrenaline rush before I even get out of bed. I wouldn’t call this a ritual, but routinely I post a picture on Instagram and Twitter. I honestly could not tell you why I do this or if it has anything to do with the game besides gauging the excitement of the fans.
This may sound strange for a 240-pound football player, but I HATE eating breakfast as soon as I wake up. I never have an appetite in the morning. It was especially hard to eat before games at 11 am. I would literally have to force myself to eat or sometimes not eat when I woke up and take a to-go box to the stadium to eat later.
