Here comes my “one shining moment” in sports — in my Senior year, my fraternity went undefeated in intramural flag football. We ran plays and warmed up before games on the front lawn of our house before every game. Our pre-game pump up music was the first Rage Against the Machine album — Bombtrack, Killing in the Name, Take The Power Back and by the time Bullet in the Head played we were all ready to run through walls and punch cows for fun.
To this day, the second Killing in the Name plays, I start running short pass patterns.
Music before athletic activity is crucial. Especially for NFL players. These are guys who, for the next three hours, will have to basically fight other guys. It takes a certain mental preparedness to convince yourself “I’m about to play a sport where there’s a solid chance I might not walk off the field, or ever walk again, for that matter.”
Billboard magazine knows the importance of music in the NFL so they asked current players the simple question “What’s on your pre-game playlist?” and I honestly wish they’d never asked. I excepted to read band names Metallica, Kayne and Foo Fighters. Instead, I got Smashmouth. Fucking Smashmouth!
“My go-to is the Lit Pandora station. It takes you back to the Sum 41, Blink-182 stuff. They’ll play some Smash Mouth with it, Third Eye Blind, Everclear. Sometimes I’ll listen to country music. A buddy of mine got me into the electronic techno music, stuff with a lot of bass to get you going, like Far East Movement.” — Audie Cole, linebacker, Minnesota Vikings.
No wonder the Vikings blow. Sum 41? Jesus Christ, is Cole getting ready to play football or work a shift at Journeys in the mall?
” I like music that has good beats. And recently I’ve been into EDM-type stuff, like Kaskade, Avicii, and Tiësto.” — Geoff Schwartz, Guard, New York Giants
I’m a Giants fan. I just burned all my gear in anger.
Justin Durant of the Dallas Cowboys was the only player with a passable playlist but also for dropping this nugget of fun on teammate and Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
“Tony Romo listens to a lot of old ‘90s pop hip-hop, that would probably have been on Now That’s What I Call Music. Or some James Blake.”
Now That’s What I Call Music and James Blake. That explains so much about Romo. So, so much.
H/T Billboard