OXNARD, Calif. – As another training camp opens for guys like DeMarcus Ware, Tony Romo and Jason Witten, there is also a group of players that this is a whole new experience for. Guys like Travis Frederick, J.J. Wilcox and Gavin Escobar have played football the majority of their young lives, but now there's so much more on the line because it's become their career.
Jason Garrett has spoken many times about how difficult it is to play in the National Football League, and no matter how talented you are, there are going to be struggles as a player that you'll have to go through in order to enjoy success. There is nothing easy about this game and it makes you dig deep within your soul as you go through the journey.
It can be a cruel game and training camp is the worst. You start with 90 brothers that on any other given day you are pulling for with all your heart, but now it becomes a very selfish act, because that brother could be the one guy that puts you on the street along with your dreams. Guys like Ware, Witten and Romo have survived on talent, but they also have survived on mental toughness.
Coaches and scouts will be looking for those players that show the mental toughness to be part of this 53-man roster. For these young players, there will be practices and days where things will not go well, but they have to show mental toughness then to put those times behind them and work toward the next play. There will also be days where they are at their absolute best and they need to build on those times. There is a flow to how training camp works, and to survive you have to be at your physical and mental best. [embedded_ad]
Every block, tackle, catch and drop will be studied to the point where the memory of it is burned into your head. There will be countless meetings and discussions of how these players have performed. There will be comers and those that fall by the way side. The conditions in Oxnard are perfect for these players to perform, so there is no excuse there. The goal is to find the 53 best players that are both physically and mentally tough. The grind for this front office, coaches and players begins today.
