March
5, 2007
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| Blake Costanzo, a 2002 Ramapo High School grad, is getting ready to leave for NFL Europe, a path he hopes will lead to the American version. |
ALLENDALE -- Blake Costanzo is going for it.
The 2002 Ramapo High School graduate who went on to play four years off college football at Lafayette, has the dream of playing in the NFL and he is not about to stop now. He was so close last season when he made it to the last round of cuts with the New York Jets before breaking his wrist in the final preseason game and he is on the road back where the next stop is Dusseldorf, Germany.
After he was injured, Costanzo reached an injury settlement with the Jets, who saw enough potential in him to retain his rights. He has been assigned to the Rhine Fire of NFL Europe where his helmet will bear the Jets’ logo on the back. Costanzo will leave for training camp in Florida on Saturday before heading off to Germany in early April. To get ready for the challenge, he is being put through the wringer at Good Energy, a fitness center in Allendale.
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| Costanzo on the field as a New York Jet during the 2006 preseason. |
“The Jets saw enough in me to send me to Europe, so I want to work hard, stay in shape and become the best athlete I can be,” said Costanzo. “That’s why I like it here at Good Energy. Pete [Ohnegian] mixes it up. We do hockey workouts here, we work on core strength, legs and balance and those things are so important to football. It’s not just about pushing weights.”
Costanzo won two state championships at Ramapo as a tight end and linebacker, he was a first-team all-NBIL selection three times and was first team All-County and All-State in his senior year. He then went on to Lafayette where he was a four-year starter at linebacker before graduating with a degree in Anthropology and Sociology last May and embarking on a career in professional football, not the usual career path for a Lafayette alumnus.
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| Bill Stevens, of Bill Stevens Karate in Allendale, demonstrating techniques during a workout at Good Energy last Wednesday. |
“Blake is not your typical Ivy League or Patriot League football player. He did not take an internship at Goldman Sachs to set himself up then play a little football on the side,” said Ohnegian, the owner of Good Energy and himself a Lafayette College graduate who played five seasons of professional football in the Arena League. “Jets camp for him last year was really like a fifth year of college. He is still young, he is only 22 years old, and he is going for it. His attitude makes it exciting for us here, too, and we want to help him get there.”
To get Costanzo on his toes, literally, Ohnegian brought in Bill Stevens, a martial arts master and owner of Bill Stevens Karate, a dojo in Allendale, to work with Costanzo in martial arts techniques that that focus on leverage and balance, two key components in the game of football.
In addition to showing Costanzo how to basically choke a man to the point of passing out and breaking a headlock with only the index and middle fingers, Stevens demonstrated the rhythmic motions of martial arts. To the untrained eye, the workout did not look particularly taxing, but the muscles were burning, the sweat was dripping and the footwork was constant.
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| Think training for a career in professional football is easy? |
“I was expecting to find a highly tuned athlete and that is what Blake is. What I tried to do is challenge him in a different way,” said Stevens. “He is in excellent physical condition, but what martial arts teaches is to use different muscle groups from different angles. Just the stress involved mentally, the thought process and concentration is part of the workout. And when you are learning, you are growing.”
The off-the-beaten-path workouts are part of the larger program that Costanzo is following. He has pulled weighted sleds through the parking lot, jumped on and off of raised platforms and even wore a medieval-looking head harness connected by chains to weights to increase the strength of his neck muscles.
Hey, professional football is a violent business.
“It’s all about movement and getting him to focus on the movements he will be using on the field,” said Ohnegian. “Blake is not into straight weight-lifting, he’ll do what a coach tells him to do with weights, but he doesn’t enjoy it, so we try to keep it interesting for him. Since he has been here he has actually lost 12 pounds, he's gone from 244 to 232, but it is good because he has actually gotten stronger and more powerful at a lower weight.”
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| The crew at Good Energy -- (from l. to r.) trainer Rob DeBrino, Blake Costanzo, Bill Stevens, and owner Pete Ohnegian. |
All of the effort, all of the expense and all of the time he has put in are just part of the journey that Costanzo hopes will lead to the goal, a spot on an NFL roster.
“I am fully recovered from my injury and I am in the best shape that I could be in at this point, so I am confident that I have done everything I can to be ready for the opportunity,” said Costanzo, who will be one of just four linebackers on the Rhine Fire roster, so he figures to get plenty of playing time. “I am going to take care of my body in Europe, play the 10 game schedule and then come back ready for NFL training camp. I will do anything I can to help a team, special teams, whatever they want me to do. It’s a challenge and I am ready for it.”
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