How the ALABAMA FOOTBALL Equipment Staff Preps for Gameday | Sports Dissected

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college football game day for us the

fans is all about the 60 minutes of game

play on saturdays but for one small

group of hard working individuals the

gameplay starts well before the coin

toss and on this episode we travel to

the university of alabama to see how

they prepare for home games i'm leland

welcome to sports dissected the series

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so typically how long does it take to

fill the truck so this truck will only

take you know 45 minutes to an hour most

everything's done before we put it on

here and then after practice we'll also

with the stuff we use during practice

play your shoulder pads helmets cleats

stuff like that the individual player

stuff this is our big trunk so this

stuff we've been packing throughout the

week so it's pretty much done so it'll

only take 30 to 45 minutes to load

pre-practice and then after practice

when we're packing bags and stuff like

that that'll take a lot longer that'll

take up to an hour and a half two hours

this is perfect for a home game what's

the difference if we're doing a weight

game weight gain takes a lot longer

because you basically have to move

everything on the road and the trucks

are different too this is a 26 foot box

truck weight gain we're taking a big 18

wheeler so in that thing it will be

packed cool so

that'll take a lot longer of a load

between us and the training staff

they'll start loading at 9am and we

won't shut the door on it until the last

player back's packed probably 7 30 8

o'clock tonight

how many guys do you have on the team so

i got 15 student managers full-time cent

managers to work for us they're they're

the backbone of the organization man

they do everything they're all full-time

students hard-working kids and they

grind and these cars aren't light no

they're heavy man they're heavy so the

number one requirement is just be a hard

worker stay a hard worker man be ready

to work

we have everybody's jersey and their

individual cubbies which makes it easier

gets them separated so we just go down

through the cubbies and get the jersey

for the game normally do whichever one

looks best it depends on the game you

know it costs that if it's weather we

use like a more beat bdn jersey that way

we don't just ruin brand new jerseys how

many versions of each church do you

typically have for each player it really

depends on how much they play and how

long they've been here all the new

freshmen they have two each color so two

white two crimson because we always

bring one jersey i bring with me that

goes on their shoulder pads and then i

bring a whole set of backups chris has

been here for four years so he has four

crimson jerseys but he also has a backup

jury so he has five crimson jerseys and

when a guy leaves can he take all those

dirties or do you guys keep those when

we play in a playoff game rose bowl

orange bowl something like that we

always let them keep their jerseys after

the game and then same thing for the

national championship they get to keep

their jerseys after that and then when

they graduate and their senior we make

up a box for them and we just put all

the rest of their jerseys in that box

with their helmet he keeps the list and

i just go through and kind of just

triple check them one more time look

over them before i put them in so one

it's kool-aid

two demarco when do you guys take the

time to put the names on each of the

jerseys guys that are returning players

when we order them from nike theirs

already come with their name all new

players if i have to make a new jersey

i'll write it out on like a piece of

paper sticky note something and i'll

take it to our seamstress and she'll

just put it on there for us in your time

here what's the worst you've seen in

jersey we were playing mercer one of our

quarterbacks he went in for bryce jalen

milro he was trying to run the ball and

his jerseys he got grabbed from the back

and jersey just completely ripped up the

back so i'd never seen that happen

before that's probably the craziest one

when naji was here he had to get a new

jersey every game he would just be is in

every game making a new nodgy jersey

every monday it's like clockwork so yeah

i see you have a really important job

you're determining how the guys look i

get to pick which one they wear every

game so if someone gets on your bad side

you're like okay i got you yeah

i would never do that i want everybody

to look good because then that makes me

look good all right so i'm with my guy

bobby we're working on right now i see

everybody in this room is just busy with

hillbilly yeah so thursday nights we got

to get all the helmets ready for the

game during the week previously we've

kind of worked on any of the big issues

with them so we've already striped

anything that's been damaged and then

redone numbers so right now we're just

kind of double checking making sure we

have the american flag our warning

sticker our stripe is centered and it's

got little holes cut like this one

doesn't have holes cut so we got to make

sure we poke it with a scalpel just in

case if a guy needs air in their helmet

on game day we can get the needle down

in there is each person in here assigned

like a player a number of players so

during the week we have our set of

numbers and those stay the same

throughout the year about six or seven

helmets but then each week on thursday

you'll get somebody else's helmets that

way we're kind of double checking each

other's work

it's nice this year because we have

those guardian caps so those stay on the

helmets during the week

and the stickers don't get damaged

nearly as much normally you know you

might have to replace half the guys

numbers because in practice they're

hitting

on their helmets and scratching it up

and ripping off the numbers how long did

it take you to get pretty good at

placing the numbers it takes quite a few

helmets you do a lot where you're kind

of like this just doesn't look right you

just keep redoing it the way we do these

is kind of look at the air hole because

that's kind of our center of the helmet

right through there and that's kind of

how we try to center it's kind of an art

i mean by now i've probably done a few

hundred helmets so i've gotten good at

it so are you working on that one can i

do something with this i mean it's

already pretty clean okay looking at it

so i would just go straight to the

shining wipes pretty simple just wipe it

over once or twice you don't have to do

any scrubbing with it or just kind of

getting the wax out onto the helmet and

so we'll do this now and then we'll do

it again about two hours before kickoff

so that the helmets look good on

saturday too get all in those little

nooks and crannies how long does it take

you to inspect and clean and get every

helmet prepared depends i guess if we're

gonna like throw an average in there by

like five minutes a helmet on thursday

night now during the week you know like

if you gotta do a helmet from scratch so

number stripe and all that it might take

45 minutes out yeah how are we looking

how are we looking i'm good looks brand

new all right

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all right rock so what we got now we're

passing out these nike bags here you

guys are first time dressers they have

their travel suit in there and they have

their travel shoes that they wear to the

games so this is his locker number here

we'll look at the lockers and you can

see in kind of the top left corner you

have a sticker that tells you what

locker it is so this is 11. so 11 goes

here all right so 117 here yep 117 right

there all right package dropped off

delivered how many uh lockers do you

guys have total 135 in here so the next

step we're going to pull these red

travel bags down from their locker and

set them in their chair so after

practice when they come in they just

throw their shoulder pads off throw it

straight in the bag throw their cleats

off throw it in the bag starting to pack

the bag for the game all right brett so

we filled the truck up yesterday right

we did we're at the stadium what happens

today so now what we do is everything we

did yesterday we're just going to kind

of now start to transition into the

locker room so grabbing player bags we

packed last night okay taking it to the

locker here in the locker room so once

we get in the locker room everyone's got

their own locker a little different from

the locker room at the facility

basically what we're doing is we're just

going to unload everything we pack so

you know the cleats their thigh pads

their helmet their shoulder pads kind of

getting all just set up in their locker

and once we get all that set up and it's

time to put on the jerseys you know get

the pants ready you know just lay it out

and that way they walk in here

everything's set up perfect all they

have to worry about is getting ready to

play the game bags at the locker so now

we're gonna do is go ahead and start you

know unpacking it piece by piece we like

to put the cleats down below um they're

out of the way but that way that when

they get here they can open it up you

know we bring two pairs kind of like we

talked about yesterday that way they can

kind of pick you know which style they

want for that game maybe try one out

during pregame see if they're liking it

then we grab their thigh pads and knee

pads and then this also opens up in the

back put these back here take out their

shoulder pads set them out for a second

because we'll come back by later and put

the jerseys on and make them look good

next we take the helmet take out a

little protective bag it's up top and

then

once we get them ready the shoulder pads

will go under it and kind of see you

know so the jersey's looking today this

house can look all together that way

they kind of see the uniform before they

put it on and then with the bag they

came in

just fold it up

and we put it back under their seat as

well out of the way they don't even know

it's there

and locker's unloaded okay so i've seen

the process i want to try one of my

momma do it man i should have timed you

so i can see if i can yeah do a little

razor

i'll do this one you want to do this one

i kind of do the same thing at the same

time so that one's already unzipped it's

a race now that's right all right you

ready

three two one go

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wait a second you

you're cheating already all right she's

gonna go in first

i don't know how to hold up relax slow

that oh wait

look i put two lips in the g let me stop

talking i gotta focus

all right here we go hold on

bro

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i'm getting

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i'm still i'm still on the on the shoes

all right shoot ain't good

shoulder pads

uh

dying knees

my shoulder pads are falling and you're

almost done you know we gotta get a

little hiccup here trying to get the bag

off somebody may be able to catch me on

this one

don't worry about the gloves and the

helmet

but i got to fold the bag i can still

catch them

let's close one

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and time no no no no no

hey i was surprised you were you're

right there you're right that helmet bag

you know it's giving me issues

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