Stuck inside like so many others over the spring, Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer had to get creative to keep himself in shape.
The 34-year-old quickly recognized the challenges of scavenging the internet for gym equipment during the coronavirus pandemic. Reputable manufacturers seemed to be universally sold out, and third-party distributors were gouging prices.
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And then there was a matter of finding space to store it all. Since Hoyer was quarantining in his family’s house in Ohio that they were trying to sell, it wouldn’t have been a great marketing strategy to rip up a room and morph it into a gym.
So Hoyer thought hard, and realized the solution had been sharing the sidelines with him for parts of seven seasons. As a teammate of Tom Brady’s for half his NFL career, Hoyer had become well-versed in the TB12 Method, a workout program centered on muscle pliability. It seemed like a natural fit.
“I was stuck in a house with no workout equipment,” Hoyer said. “I’m looking at all the options online, and I’m like, I don’t even have any place to put (anything). I was actually quarantining at my house in Ohio while we were trying to put it up for sale, so I reached out to those guys (at TB12) and I said, ‘Look, clearly this is something I can do in my house.’ And I started doing it, and I felt great. I really stuck with it. Obviously, I’ve always heard a lot of input on it while learning from Tom. It was actually out of coronavirus. If I didn’t have that, I don’t really know what I would have done. There was no gym to go to. I wasn’t going to order a whole workout system. And with that, I was able to do a whole lot of things in the confines of my basement and outside in my driveway once the weather changed.”
There were so many unknowns in March, globally and within the NFL landscape. How quickly would the virus spread? How safe were gyms? Was it a health concern to fly? And when would NFL teams be summoned back to work?
It’s been paramount for players to reduce risks, back in the spring and especially when they were called in July to converge for training camp. They needed to stay healthy and avoid bringing the virus into their team facility to prevent an outbreak.
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They also had to ensure throughout the spring that they remained in shape just in case they were suddenly cleared to resume on-site workouts. While some players chose to travel to workout facilities, Hoyer was among the contingent to prefer the cautious approach.
“The best thing was getting set up with a specific trainer, and he gave me an entire plan,” Hoyer said. “It’s hard because let’s say you just ordered the equipment, and then you’re trying to figure it out because there are very different movements and things like that. So getting with a guy, and having Zoom sessions with him and doing those things really helped. I really appreciate the time that he spent on doing it.”
There was also a comical element to it all. While, anecdotally, it seems more commonplace in the present climate to see more people exercising outside, it’s another thing when the neighbors stumble upon an NFL quarterback sprawled out in his driveway with resistance bands.
“I’ll never forget sitting out there doing these workouts, and people are walking their dog past me,” Hoyer said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is insane. I’m in the NFL, and I’m sitting here doing these banded workouts in my driveway.’ People are looking at me like I’m crazy, but that’s the reality of where we are with everything going on in the world today. It’s crazy. The looks I got were like, ‘What is this dude doing?’
“It’s kind of weird. Everyone said, ‘Well, there was no offseason in the (2011) lockout.’ But in the lockout, you could still go work out. I remember there were like 15 of us who worked out at a gym in Foxboro together. So even though we couldn’t come in the building, we were still doing what we normally would do. With this (pandemic), you couldn’t do that. So everyone was kind of on their own and so spread out, so it was all depending on where you were living. It was really out of necessity. I really learned to like it, and I felt good and continued to go with it.”
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Hoyer, competing with Jarrett Stidham and Cam Newton in the Patriots quarterback room with Brady gone, completed 91 of 143 passes (63.6 percent) in training camp with a team-low three interceptions. He was also the most effective deep-ball passer during the 12 practices.
It seemed like his ball was popping more than in the past, but Hoyer wasn’t sure if the new workout routine impacted his velocity.
“It’s always hard to tell,” Hoyer said. “Everyone always asks. I remember this last year, they’re like, ‘Man, your arm looks really good.’ I’m like, ‘Guys, I’ve been throwing the same way for 12 years.’ I feel good. I think a lot of it has to do with 12 years in, you establish a routine and you know what you need and go from there.”
(Photo: Steven Senne / AP)
