David Boston :: essays research papers

Whats going on in Room 614? Theres an overgrown wide receiver in there. "Dude, youre on steroids" fans yell at him at training camp. A lot of NFL players and coaches think hes on something, but the term they use is yoked up. "Gotta be," says an NFC defensive back. The receiver keeps testing great (seven clock times last season), but his peers are still suspicious. They cant prove it, but they think hes on something they dont have a test for yet, maybe human harvest-time hormone (HGH), and one reason is the size of his head. "Look, even his face is growing," the player goes on. "Hes bloated. His cheekbones have changed." Guys around the league just dont see how his weight could jump from 209 to 257 in three years. Or how he can have 21-inch biceps, a 34-inch waist and 5.5% body fat. Or how he can run the 40 in 4.3 seconds. Or how the sorry Cardinals could let such a physical specimen walk. Or how 30 other teams could let the Chargers scoop him up a s a unloosen agent for only 47 mil. No, theres got to be something going on in that room. Something to keep Arizona from franchising him, something to scare off the rest of the league. "We didnt even have him on our board," says a Redskins exec, whose team needed a receiver this winter and opted to pay Laveranues Coles a $13 million signing bonus. Laveranues Coles? Hes half this guys size and doesnt run any faster. But few trust him. They hear all the stories. How he eats only in his personal trainers room, Room 614 at the Hilton Carson Civic Plaza in Carson, Calif. How Hall of Famer Joe Greene, an assistant coach on his old team, wonders if hell live to 30. How hes paying his personal trainer $200K a year. How, even though hes rooming with LaDainian Tomlinson, hes holed up most of the time in Room 614. Holed up and getting heavier every day. "Have you seen that guy? Our D-line coach calls him Robocop," says Chargers defensive end Marcellus Wiley. "If any of us defensive linemen go down, hes going two-way. I mean, 260 pounds, 5% body fat, a 4.3 40? Thats 30 sacks. Every day in the cafeteria, I walk past the fried foods and say, I am David Boston That way, I wont eat them.