I just think overall a lot of it has to do with conditioning and players putting in the time and the effort in the off-season to keep themselves in condition for 12 months a year.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
People don't realize the amount of stress you put on your body both physically and mentally from just the wear and tear of a season.
When you're an athlete and you play every day and are conditioning yourself every year, the aging is gradual.
Usually older players, late in the season, start to get cold.
When you're with your club team, every week you have a performance to judge. But when you're with the national team, it's a little different because you might not play for three or four months at a time. Things change constantly.
So I don't really believe that how many years you've had in the league determines how well your players play... Coaching is coaching.
When it's deep into the season and you're not playing well, it's frustrating. This is when it's time to revisit some basics.
During the season... fun, to me, is getting sacks, making tackles and winning games. It's not spending money, girls, or, you know, this and that.
You've got to get good habits of working hard so that when that play comes up during the regular season that you're able to complete it and do it the right way.
It's a frustrating game because the situations so drastically change at different times over the course of the week, the game, the season. It feels like brain surgery at times.
I think great players can play in any year, that's why they're great. A lot of it is down to the mental approach.