TAMPA, Fla. -- If you're one of those NFL draft obsessives who tunes in to the NFL Network to watch the scouting combine, you know John Lott.
Lott, the Cardinals' strength and conditioning coach, is the guy who oversees the bench press portion of the combine process. All 300-plus players at the combine have Lott as their spotter as they attempt to lift 225 pounds for as many repetitions as they can. But more importantly, Lott serves as the players' motivator -- the way he makes players confident in themselves and gets them fired up about lifting weights would make Tony Robbins proud.
At the Cardinals' Super Bowl media day today, Lott (pictured above celebrating the NFC Championship with Kurt Warner) said the way he keeps players motivated is to challenge them to work harder, and he said that's exactly what he'll do in the final days leading up to the Super Bowl.
"We're having a good time here today," Lott said. "After this, it's over. It's time to get to work."
That work won't include any intense workouts in the final days leading up to the Super Bowl, but Lott can take pride in the way he whipped the Cardinals into shape all season, to the point that they're peaking in January.
When the Cardinals hired Lott two years ago, his first priority was getting them to renovate the weight room. He oversaw a six-week construction project that gave the Cardinals state-of-the-art workout facilities, with all the equipment necessary for Lott's emphasis on explosive movements, including power cleans and Olympic lifts.
Lott said the pound-for-pound strongest player on the Cardinals' roster is safety Adrian Wilson, who weighs 230 pounds and can bench press 430 pounds. He said that in terms of pure strength, the strongest player would have to be guard Reggie Wells, who in Lott's words, squats with "seven plates," meaning seven 45-pound plates on each side of a 45-pound bar, for a total squat of 675 pounds.
And as for Lott himself? I asked him how much he can bench, and he wouldn't tell me. He was more interested in talking about the strength of his players.
