By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 14, 2014
“You have to have an identity. Everybody talks about being tough, but it’s about the mental toughness. It’s about being able to do the monotonous things day in and day out. It’s about being technically sound. Toughness comes into how fast you can differentiate pass blocks vs. run block, knowing your keys. That’s the type of mental toughness they teach. We’re going to fly to the ball, we’re going to be physical and we’re going to take the ball away. That’s going to be our identity. You have to have that, and that’s how we practice. Everyone wants to be tough, but it’s not that physical (type) ... It’s doing the day-in and day-out, those monotonous things over and over and over and perfecting those.” ~ Jared Allen, Chicago Bears