Brady and Guerrero have been inseparable ever since, with the 39-year-old crediting his athletic longevity to the trainer. The two met more than a decade ago, and in 2008, when Brady blew out his ACL, it was Guerrero who worked him back to health in record time. And no article about Tom Brady is complete without a few paragraphs on Guerrero and an attempt to describe his relationship to football’s greatest quarterback: trainer, nutritionist, counselor, spiritual guide, massage therapist, and godfather to Brady’s youngest son. Julian Edelman once referred to him as Mr. NFL stars from Wes Welker to LaDainian Tomlinson have trusted him with their livelihoods.
And yet he’s become something of a legend in the sports world. Guerrero’s methods are unconventional, to say the least. MORE: 17 Stretches Every Man Should Know Read article But here’s the thing about rest: It makes you feel better, but it doesn’t make you get better.” He doesn’t care if you want to climb Mount Everest. “It’s completely understandable that your surgeon’s number one goal is to protect his surgery site,” he explains. He pauses, giving me his undivided attention. “I’m not actually supposed to be bearing any weight.” “Is it safe?” I ask Guerrero, 51, whom I met through a mutual friend. But here I was, five weeks later, feeling like an imposter in a facility filled with elite athletes, about to walk.
My surgeon warned me that I shouldn’t expect to perform at the athletic level “to which I had become accustomed.” He used three screws to piece my heel back together and ordered me not to put weight on it for at least three months. In the emergency room, I learned that I’d fractured my heel bone - an injury infamous for its long-term complications, like death of bone tissue that, in extreme cases, can lead to amputation.
SUPPLE GAME WHY DOES HUGH GAIN EXPERINECE FASTER FULL
I was 12 feet off the deck when I lost my grip and fell, the full weight of my body coming down on my left leg. I had just returned home from a grueling seven-day race across the Alps and was climbing at an indoor gym - the kind that sells protein bars for $7 and hosts birthday parties for fifth graders. Five weeks ago, I shattered my heel in a bouldering fall. The We Got This Room has a wall-to-ceiling photograph of a rock climber hanging off a cliff, and I start to think it’s someone’s idea of a joke to put me in here. Indeed, with everything from branded water bottles to neatly arranged rows of organic snacks and energy bars, TB12 feels more like a high-end spa than a training facility for ferocious football stars. Every space in this 7,500-square-foot complex has its own theme: the Grit Room, the Determination Room, the Perseverance Room. Outside, in the shadow of Gillette Stadium, the Patriots are practicing for that weekend’s game against the Seahawks. It’s early November, and I’m lying flat on my back in the We Got This Room at the TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
“It’s time,” Alex Guerrero tells me, resting his hand on my mangled foot.
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