Looking for "Super Trainers" in the Sports World

[The Indomitable DrugS]

I thought I'd take a look this morning and see if I could find an equivalent to horse racings "super trainer" in the sports world.

I knew for sure I'd find a pile of shady guys if I looked at juice age Baseball, Track and Field, Bicycling etc. etc. - but I wanted to start with NFL football.

After searching for all of 4 seconds - I think I found my guy.



No, that isn't the Geico Caveman's face superimposed on Tom Brady's body - it's actually current New England Patriots Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Woicik.

Woicik is the only player or coach in NFL history who has won six or more Super Bowl rings.

Before coming to the NFL, he was also the strength and conditioning coach of the HIGHLY improbable undefeated 1987 Syracuse football team.

Here is what my research of him has uncovered over the last half hour...

* First NFL job Dallas Cowboys ('90 to '96) The 1989 Cowboys were one of the worst teams in NFL history. They had a 1-15 record. The offense was dead last in the NFL in points scored. And only 4 other teams allowed more points than there defense did. So he wasn't inheriting a great team.

The Cowboys won at least 10 games for all six years from '91 through '96 .. they also won 3 Super Bowls. Each Super Bowl win was by a double digit point margin.


* Third NFL job New England Patriots (2000 to current) Bill Belichick brought him in when he took over the Patriots in 2000. The Patriots were improbable Super Bowl champions in 2001 - beating the heavily favored "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams. They won two more Super Bowls in '03 and '04. The '07 team is the only team in NFL history to go 16-0 in the regular season. They've had a winning record ten years in a row.


* Second NFL job New Orleans Saints ('97 to '99) The '96 Saints were 3-13. They were 29th out of 30 in points scored. 20th out of 30 in points allowed. So, he was inheriting a very bad team.

Worse than inheriting a horrible team - the Saints were coached by an irrational Mike Ditka those three years. Ditka famously traded every single one of his draft picks - plus his 1st and 3rd round pick the following year - just so he could move up slightly and take Ricky Williams.

The Saints started 4 different QB's in '97, 4 different QB's in '98, and 4 different QB's in '99 ... how is that possible? Despite Ditka's sanity lapse - the Saints did improve under Woicik .. but did not have a winning season.


* Syracuse Magic Going into 1987, Syracuse hadn't had a top 20 finish since the 1961 season a mere 26 years earlier. They had won just a single bowl game over that 26 year stretch .. that lone bowl win came in the 1979 Indepencance Bowl over the McNeese State Cowboys (<-- who?)

The 1986 Syracuse team was just 5-6. They lost to teams like Army and Rutgers. The only nationally ranked team Syracuse played in '86 was Penn State - and Penn State beat them 42-3.

The 1987 Syracuse team went 11-0 in the regular season. They beat Penn State 48-21. The 48 points Syracuse scored on Penn State was the most points scored on Penn State since UCLA put 51 on them in 1966. That '66 UCLA team eventually won the Rose Bowl over the nations #1 ranked team.

After going 11-0 - Syracuse faced Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. Auburn went through the SEC undefeated - and beat the Texas Longhorns 31-3 in non-confrence play. Syracuse led 16-13 late ... but a last second Auburn field goal made the game end in a 16-16 tie.

After the impossible undefeated season of '87 .. Syracuse went 10-2 in 1988 and beat that years SEC Champion LSU 23-10 in Bowl play. Syracuse won the 1989 Peach Bowl over the Georgia Bulldogs in Woicik's final year as a college Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Amusingly - it's only Bill Belichick who has the reputation of being a "cheater" on the Patriots coaching staff. Not the man who Belichick could have probably used during his unsucessful 36-44 five year coaching stint with the Cleveland Browns (current Baltimore Ravens) in the 90's.

[Port Conway Lane]

I admire your research especially on the Cowboys.The Herschel Walker trade was much more likely the catalyst for their success than Woicik.
Excellent spin though.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

From what I've now learned - Alvin Roy would probably top the Geico Caveman in New England as the NFL's greatest "Super Trainer"

Alvin Roy's start as a trainer came not with a team .. but with a high school sophomore who he trained at his house.

In 1954 in Baton Rouge, Billy Cannon (at that time, only a 168 lb sophomore high school football star) began his strength conditioning at Alvin Roy's studio.

"By the time Billy entered LSU two years later, he was up to 193. By his sophomore year when he began varsity play, he weighed 200 and pressed 270, which was only 12 pounds off the Olympic record at the time

Eventually - the LSU coaches were so impressed - that they decided to make Alvin Roy the first football strength and conditioning coach in history in 1958. Now Roy worked with all the LSU players and not just Cannon.

LSU had failed to have a winning season for four straight years from '54 to '57 .. but under Alvin Roy - they went 11-0 in 1958 and won the national championship.

Billy Cannon - Roy's first client and a white running back - won the Heisman Trophy and was the first pick in the NFL draft.

Alvin Roy's first year in the NFL was 1963. He was hired as the strength and conditioning coach by the San Diego Chargers. He brought steroids into the NFL and made it required for all Chargers players to use them.

The 1962 Chargers had a 4-10 record. In Roy's first year, under his Steroid program, the Chargers went 11-3 in the regular season. They beat the Boston Patroits 51-10 in the championship game .. gaining over 600 yards. It is still the only championship ever won by a San Diego sports team in city history.

Roy won three Super Bowls with the Chiefs and Raiders as well. He died at age 59.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane

I admire your research especially on the Cowboys.The Herschel Walker trade was much more likely the catalyst for their success than Woicik.
Excellent spin though.

The offensive line for the Cowboys in the 90's was super human. I could have rushed for a thousand yards behind that O-line .. forget Emmit Smith.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Here is a pretty cool outside the lines video ESPN did called "Pumped up Pioneers - how the 1963 Chargers brought steroids to the NFL"

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/n...ory?id=3866837

'63 was Alvin Roy's first year with the Chargers.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane

I admire your research especially on the Cowboys.The Herschel Walker trade was much more likely the catalyst for their success than Woicik.
Excellent spin though.

Mark Stepnoski was born and raised in Erie. He went to Bob Sanders high school Erie Prep. He went to the Pro Bowl for five straight years from '92 through '96 as a center on that super human Cowboys O-line






Nate Newton weighed 400lbs when he played football.... he did have one of those weight loss surgeries that hasn't helped Charlie Weiss much ...






9 second video of Cowboys tackle Larry Allen bench pressing 700lbs....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1FAbsxREb4

That whole O-line was insane. They would obliterate defensive players. Bench pressing 700lbs is a joke.

[Port Conway Lane]

Again very thorough research. I'm sure you can find similar results for any number of losing teams if you look deep enough.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane

Again very thorough research. I'm sure you can find similar results for any number of losing teams if you look deep enough.

Guys bench pressing 700lbs?

Uh, no.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Mark Tuinei - Cowboys offensive tackle. NFL all-pro in both '94 and '95. Three time Super Bowl winner. Dead at age 39

In May 1999, Tuinei was found unconscious in his car and pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital in the Dallas suburb of Plano. He had been planning to return to Punahou School as offensive line coach. The autopsy revealed that Tuinei died of a lethal combination of heroin and a form of the drug ecstasy. His death was ruled an accident.

Another one of Port Conway Lane's squeaky clean but otherworldly great Dallas Cowboy offensive lineman from the mid '90's.

He joins the 700lbs bench press guy - and the two other juice monkeys pictured above - as a group that sent 4 O-lineman to the Pro Bowl in the same year. May he rest in peace.