Joe Salavea left for Las Vegas with his family, intent on getting healthy and shedding the mental baggage he carried last season. He just forgot to do one thing: leave on the heat.
And, for the second year in a row, some pipes in the house burst and his basement flooded. “It was a lot of damage,” he said. “When you grow up [in Samoa], you don’t have to worry about [freezing weather].”
But Salavea, and teammate Renaldo Wynn, were wise enough to know that Las Vegas was a smart place to go to keep their careers alive. Both bet that a workout program could extend their NFL stays. Wynn remains the top backup end, particularly as a run-stopper. And Salavea, entering his ninth NFL season, has been rotating with Kedric Golston on the first unit at defensive tackle, where he started five games last year until injuries forced Washington to limit his time.
In the past two seasons, Salavea has had to deal with his mother’s death, plantar fasciitis and strained calves. “I’m just so happy that [Salavea] is refreshed and healthy,” assistant head coach/defense Gregg Williams said. “He needed to have a good training camp and he is.”
“Renaldo’s looking good, he’s had a good camp, he’s solid,” Gibbs said. “Our defensive line, I thinkwe have some young guys, too, that will make a run at this.” Both players attended the Philippi Sports Institute in Vegas, run by Mark Philippi, who won the national drug-free power-lifting championship in 1993. Last month, they spent one week with the work intensified. That’s when they performed the drag, during which they could only use their bare hands to pull weight. The kicker: it makes 25 pounds feel like 400. ÒIt makes you feel like you’re dragging semis,” Wynn said. But it also made Wynn feel energized, as did the entire offseason. Entering his 12th season, that can only help extend his career. It’s also what he needed after dealing with the effects of a broken arm, suffered in the 2005 postseason. “It’s been two years since I felt this good,” Wynn said. Which is good news for a defensive line in need of depth. A healthy Wynn and Salavea would provide that insurance. “I tried to downplay it last year,” Salavea said of his problems. “But it seemed like I never had time to take a breath. This year it’s amazing; my focus is only on building on practice. “When a lot of stuff is clouding your mind, you tend not to be as aggressive. “Naldo is coming around. … It hasn’t been like that for both of us the past couple years.”
