Yes. It’s also important to know that there are different members of the team. There’s the athletic trainer, the medical doctor, and the chiropractor. To treat athletes at a high level, you have to know what your niche is, to know when you can step in and say something, and when you maybe shouldn’t.

You have to learn how to collaborate, how to work well with others.

In some ways, it’s just like any other business organization. You know what your specialty is. If it’s a large energy company, there are the tax professionals, the merger and acquisition professionals, and all the other players on the team. You know what you’re good at, where you can find little problems that may need work, and then you relay that message to someone else so they can do their job as well.

How did it feel when you found out that you had the opportunity to work at a professional football team’s training camp?

I was very happy. This was what I had wanted. I never had a question in my mind that it was going to happen. It was just, “This is my opportunity, I’m going to do it.” That’s the way I go about things. It’s not, “I have a goal and maybe I’ll get there.” Instead, it’s, “I’m going to get there, no matter what it takes.” I had started to put the pieces of the puzzle together a few years before so that I would be ready when an opportunity like this came.

What was most surprising to you when you started working with world-class athletes including pro football players?

Well, obviously, they’re large. It’s really totally different than working with the general public. For one thing, moving a leg of an offensive lineman or defensive lineman is like moving the whole body of someone else.

Also, I didn’t think I would be that nervous, but when I went to training camp for a week last year, I was there by myself, without any other chiropractor. Over the week I was there, I gradually became more comfortable. I had discovered previously, when I was treating university athletes, that when I start out in a new situation, I don’t perform quite as well right when I get there. It takes a while to get comfortable and get to know more people. But then I start to feel more in my element and I can start displaying that I have the capabilities of doing this well. So the biggest thing to me is the need to get used to it to reach full effectiveness.

Did the players seem receptive to this kind of work?

Definitely.

They were glad you were there?

Yes. Some players that didn’t know anything about this work from before would have the ART and the chiropractic done. They didn’t know me, and I look a little bit younger, so they may not have been sure about me. But after I treated them, they’d come back from practice and say, “Man! That was incredible. I could run.” Even though their hamstring had been really tight beforehand. And then I’d adjust their hips, make sure everything’s rotating nicely, and they’d get out there and they could run full-go with no holding back. So yes, they were very receptive.

Do most NFL teams have a chiropractor present during games to work with the athletes, or is it just before and after the games?