Dolphins training facility voted #1 by NFLPA survey.

By Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The hot tub fits 15 players. Each player’s weight workout is individualized and scheduled into their day for best results.

Fresh-cooked and boxed omelets await players arriving at the last minute to take into team meetings each morning.

They fly a chartered, double-decker 747 plane to games where every player has a business-class seat that reclines flat for sleeping or just stretching out.

“That plane is something we’ve been doing the last four years and isn’t the norm,” said Brandon Shore, the Miami Dolphins senior vice president of football and business administration. “Obviously, there’s an incremental expense associated with it that (team owner Steve Ross) allows.

“When we went to Germany last season, for example, we used our plane. The league has a partner and offers one, but it would’ve required more of our players to be in coach seating. That’s not acceptable for us.”
Does this help? Does it shed some context on why the Dolphins finished first in an NFL players’ union poll about working conditions, stressing the, “daily experience of players at the team facilities away from the lights and cameras,” as its report said.

The poll involved 1,706 players from the 32 teams rating everything from food (the Dolphins rated first) to training staff (first) to strength coaches (second) to the owner’s, “willingness to invest in the facilities” (first).

It’s a smart move by the union to improve conditions for players through the glare of public knowledge. A team like the New England Patriots, for instance, received a “D” grade for lack of space on travel, an “F” for the quality of weight room and an “F-minus” as one of four teams not providing a family room or daycare during games.

The flip side is highlighting teams with optimal work conditions. The Dolphins, for instance. Their lowest grade in the 11 polled areas was “A-minus.”

It helps they have the newest team facility in the league adjoining Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

If Ross invested the money and set the tone for the facility, if team president and CEO Tom Garfinkel and Shore oversaw its big-picture construction, perhaps a white board in the team’s former Davie facility also explains why Dolphins players value their working atmosphere.

At that white board, strength coach Dave Puloka and trainer Kyle Johnston sketched ideas for their new world before meeting architects and construction workers and plotting everything down to placement of electrical outlets.

One example: Johnston knew the hot tub was a problem in the former facility considering, “if two offensive linemen were in it a cornerback couldn’t fit and water was going on the floor,’’ he said.

So, he had 15 players stand on the floor and laid tape on it. That’s the size of hot tub they needed. Throw in a cold-plunge pool and a lap pool and you almost see what’s at work here. Almost, because the lap pool can be converted into a 105-degree hot tub or 45-degree cold pool with enough room that, “if the whole team wanted to get in we could do it.”

“A big part of designing the facility is we wanted the weight, training, hydrotherapy, nutrition — all of it we wanted in close proximity to enable us to communicate all the time,’’ Puloka said. “Things change in football quickly and if someone’s way on the other side of the building even with phones and texts it’s not as good as me going right to Kyle and asking for the latest on so-and-so.”

There’s an it-takes-a-village idea to what the union polled. Equipment manager Joe Cimino’s staff oversees a spacious locker room that rated third in the league.

Scott Bullis, the senior director of team operations, directs team travel that rated tops in the league. It isn’t just the 747. Players can park near the chartered plane at the Fort Lauderdale airport (some teams bus players from the team facility) and each player has an individual hotel room (some teams double-up younger players; Tampa Bay charges players for an individual room).

The Dolphins’ food ranked first in taste, second in freshness, John Parenti rated second as a nutritionist and, “multiple players made it a point to give credit to the staff in the cafeteria,” the union’s report said. “They think the food service staff is tremendous.”

Meg Kelly, the director of dining services, has a common question when hiring for her staff: “Give me five recipes for chicken.” It’s generally liked, healthy, open to various meals and Dolphins players ate 10,000 pounds of chicken from June to December last season, Kelly said.

They also ate 1,400 pounds of salmon, 22,000 eggs, 4,000 avocados, 1,000 pounds of turkey breast at the deli station and 250 cases of romaine lettuce.

“Everything is roasted; there are no friers in the kitchen,” she said, citing the unhealthier aspects of fried food.

It’s not all by-the-health-book eating to keep calories on and the food fun. Players ate 1,700 pounds of bacon last season. And a cinnamon-roll pancake breakfast is served on Saturday mornings before a Sunday game.

“Everything is a balance,” Kelly said. “If one of the players is asking for oxtail, we’ll do that as long as we have chicken breast for others. We had a request for a lobster roll. That was a big one. We made a lobster rolls hot and cold and various ways.”

A player needs to gain or lose weight, the different disciplines in the building — food, training, strength — meet to formulate and follow through on plans. Such collaboration is at the center of what each of these behind-the-curtain staff members feel is their shared success.

As the union’s report said, “The state-of-the-art facilities continue to impress, but more importantly, are complemented by the number of quality trainers, strength coaches and other support staff who help make the workplace experience one of the best across the league.”

The number of trainers, strength coaches and physical therapists is normal by NFL standards, they say. But Puloka made a common point in texting his staff after the union’s report came out in saying, “technology and data and all that is nice, but it comes down to good people — and it always will.”

No one works more closely or often more hours with players than strength and training staffs. Puloka and Johnston stressed the need to build trust with players to have any impact.

“I’m fortunate enough to having been an undrafted free agent, went to a small school and came into (the NFL) and it was almost like I wasn’t even there,” Puloka said. “I remember feeling out of place and there wasn’t anyone telling me what to focus on or not worry about.

“So, I have the perspective that I wish someone had told me what I can tell players now. What to expect, how to focus on what’s important, training habits, nutrition. We cover all the topics no one did for us.”

At the center of the NFLPA grades on the Dolphins is an understood idea every plays has a finite career. The idea is to maximize that career through food plans, by drawing up weight workouts for a 22-year-old rookie or 35-year-old veteran with a shoulder problem or through the daily grind of rehabilitating an injury.

“It’s a people business,” Johnston said. “There’s nothing cooler for us than to see a player have some adversity, overcome it and having the kind of success that lets him go sign a big contract. It’s really cool to be a part of that.”

Winning? Losing? That’s not in their control.

“Our idea is to set the conditions to where players can perform at their best,” Puloka said. “We can’t throw and catch or run the ball, but we can set conditions that are conducive for them to play at their highest level.


Could this also help explain why the team is so soft and gets hurt so easily?

On top of multi million contracts. This team may be too pampered. Maybe they need a few weeks of a prop plane and Arby's to get that eye of the tiger.........

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

The part of that story that mentions the Patsies getting crappy grades is ALL OVER sportstalk radio here in Patsy Land.

The sportscasters here are already paranoid about having a bad draft....this just added to their panic (oh my god..no DAYCARE? Everyone ELSE Has daycare..what's wrong with the Krafts <fyi the Kraft family are the owners--I don't expect the rest of the world to know that> ).

Aside from laughing at the locals here panicking even further, I was actually surprised that the Krafts did/provided rated so badly. They have always been portrayed as among the best owners. But times change I guess. Even their stadium is being whined about ( I still regard it as 'new' but it has a couple decades on it now...which is an eternity in the NFL).

My original observation was that Kansa City, which was ranked #31 in this survey had a lot less injuries and went on to win the SB.
All this pampering just doesn't feel right. After a day of vacationing at the training facilities it's off to South Beach to unwind.
Fangio had a problem with the "country club" atmosphere and took a lot of heat for it.
Prove me wrong but, I don't think McD's approach is the right one.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2024 06:34AM by Hooligan2.

Hooligan2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My original observation was that Kansa City, which
> was ranked #31 in this survey had a lot less
> injuries and went on the win the SB.
> All this pampering just doesn't feel right. After
> a day of vacationing at the training facilities
> it's off to South Beach to unwind.
> Fangio had a problem with the "country club"
> atmosphere and took a lot of heat for it.
> Prove me wrong but, I don't think McD's approach
> is the right one.


That actually makes sense. That's why they are more interested in fancy choreographed dances then winning. Playing in -14 weather? Don't think so. When players are walking off the field hugging the HC I see that as an issue. After a playoff win , that's different. But I don't see much disapline after 3 Ints, or holding calls. Nothing.

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

I know that the fan accommodations at the stadium doesn't figure in to the exact subject here, but the mention of KC reminded me of the news story this week that several fans needed amputations of fingers/toes after attending the Miami/KC playoff game. Could you imagine, being a Phins fan, scraping enough money together to RoadTrip to KC for the game. Witness the Dolphins fold up like a cheap suit, freeze your ass off and LITERALLY also freeze your fingers and toes off.

When I was a kid, the heat and sun exposure at the Orange Bowl likely would be criminal these days, and now we at least have a canopy that puts most spectators in the shade. Absolutely could not imagine having to get a finger or toe cut off after watching a game in person. Brutal.

Holy shit. Didn't hear about that.
Wow. Just wow. The greed of the NFL actually caused severe injuries. To be fair I'd like to think once hypothermia was setting in I believe I'd have left. So those fans are ultimately responsible for thier own well being......but playing that game was irresponsible and reckless. All about Money. SMH. New low.

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

I'd only heard it on the radio so I just double checked. Associated Press confirms the amputation story. So messed up, considering the Bills game got pp'd for snow. You don't even need a deep freeze for snow.

Re hypothermia, it's not as clear-cut to the victims who suffer it. Lots of instances of it near me since I've lived up north. Often times the body somehow feels *warm* when hypothermia sets in and some victims even remove levels of clothing. It's tricky as hell.

What irks me somewhat is that we heat the FIELDS these days (to an above-freezing point in the 40s, not to make them warm and steamy) to prevent frozen ground and the associated injuries...that is less of a luxury for the players as we've been discussing, but a valid field treatment. BUT, we can't put ambient heat in the flooring under he bleachers? Once again just to bring it above freezing into the 40 degree range. Maybe that's the next step to avoid fans' fingers and toes from getting frozen.