Eagles starting right tackle Winston Justice writes a weekly column for the Daily News to provide his insights into the team. His columns appear Wednesdays.
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OFFENSIVE LINEMEN are funny; they are always known as the ugly, overweight men. Nobody knows this more than us - so we take the opportunity to tease each other every chance we get.
It is true some of the guys on our line struggle with their weight, but every year we do have an inner competition to find out who has the lowest body fat. The man with the highest body fat, and I won't name any names but he occasionally plays next to me, will be ridiculed by the guys for the rest of the season. With every lineman weighing more than 310 pounds, the Eagles have one of the heaviest offensive lines in the NFL.
Part of our daily schedule includes 4 hours of meetings with position coach, Juan Castillo. Each day, we go over our practice film, game film and our opponent's defensive game film. Even in football you don't get away from studying and making presentations. Every week, coach Castillo has each lineman stand-up and give a presentation on the man they are up against on Sunday.
Meeting rooms are a funny place. As serious as film watching and studying gets, there is always room for laughter with 14 guys in their mid-20s. Last week, coach installed two automatically spraying, wall-mounted air fresheners. According to him, we had to clear out of the room too often, after some of the guys went to town on the lunchroom chili.
Pregame rituals are a part of most sports. Saturdays before the game, I eat two large pizzas and on Sunday mornings I attend the team chapel as a part of my game preparations.
Some of the other linemen also have their own routines. Each Sunday, Jamaal Jackson prays and takes the stickers off the inside of his gloves and puts them in his locker and then cuts the straps off his shoes before he heads out onto the field.
Max Jean-Gilles listens to the artist Pastor Troy before games. Todd Herremans always makes sure he tapes his left wrist before his right.
The team is already fired up for the Giants this weekend. The inner-conference rivalry between the two teams gets the guys emotional. With both teams coming off wins, Sunday's game should be a show.
