IRVING, Texas – A contemporary Dallas-New England matchup always evokes discussion of the 1990s Cowboys and 2000s Patriots, the only teams ever to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span.
Mike Woicik happens to own all six championship rings.
Woicik is back for his second term as the Cowboys' strength and conditioning coach. From 1990-96, he was an integral part of all three Super Bowl teams. Same with the Patriots from 2000-10.
No player or head coach in NFL history can match Woicik's six rings. Charles Haley, who's entering the Cowboys Ring of Honor next month, comes close with five.
"Mike's got a wealth of experience and he's got a tremendous background with all of the things that you want your strength and conditioning coach to have in the National Football League," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said via conference call this week. "He's got a lot of experience with track and running and his speed training as well as power lifting and becoming stronger and more explosive as well as rehabbing injuries and working guys back from being less than 100 percent all the way back to being full speed.
"And that's what that position is. You're dealing with fast, skill players. You're dealing with big players that are trying to create power and explosion. There's obviously conditioning levels with all of them and then you have players that you're constantly trying to bring back from less than 100 percent to a 100 percent or a high enough level that they can participate in the game and train with everybody else."
This season Woicik replaces Joe Juraszek, who originally succeeded him as Cowboys strength coach from 1997-2010. Running back Tashard Choice said Juraszek did an outstanding job working with the current players, and Woicik has filled in well despite losing an entire offseason due to the NFL lockout.
Along with the Cowboys' athletic training staff, Choice credited Woicik for helping him return from a training camp calf injury.
"He was making sure I stayed on top of my legs, doing different things," Choice said. "He has a whole regimen of how he wants to make you stronger, and he made me stronger."
