Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark was quite a popular man on Monday as he was also a guest on the Dave Dameshek Football Program. Clark talked about several things related to the team and made it known that he texted linebacker LaMarr Woodley to see if he had read the Sunday report by Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that included a quote from an anonymous player stating that he was out of shape last season and that he played awful.
“First thing I did was text him,” Clark said. “Honestly, that\’s the first thing I did. I said \’Did you see it?\’ and he was like, \’Yeah, I saw it. I\’m not worried about. I\’m going to come back ready.\'”
Clark also revealed to host Dave Dameshek that he had talked to Woodley all season long about training this offseason where he trains out in Arizona.
“LaMarr and I talked about this all season,” Clark said. “I wanted him to train where I train in Arizona – Performance Enhancement Professionals. I think that it\’s the best place in the world to train and prepare for the season, and oddly enough, LaMarr started there last Monday, where a lot of guys aren\’t even working out right now.”
Woodley made it known a few weeks ago that he was declining the offer made to him by renowned trainer Tom Shaw to train down in Florida at the Wide World of Sports Complex because he had already made plans to train out in Arizona. We now know that Clark\’s urging was likely the reason why he decided to do that.
As far as Woodley\’s play last season, Clark offered up his opinion on that as well and he also commented more on what the anonymous player had to say to Cook.
“He was injured last year,” Clark said. “Whatever the reason was, was the reason. Whether it\’s because he didn\’t work out hard enough, or whatever it was, he was injured. LaMarr being injured and not being 100% hurts our team. LaMarr wants to be great individually and he wants to win Super Bowls, and he understands in order to do that we need him healthy and so he\’s training.
“He didn\’t seem to care too much that somebody said it, but to me the problem is it shows a fracture in the Pittsburgh Steelers that we aren\’t used to seeing.”
We now know that Woodley is well aware of what everybody thinks about him right now. How could he not at this point? His offseason training has started and all that is left now is for him to show up come training camp time in shape. I am willing to bet that he does.
