Heading into Week 3 of the 2021 regular season, with two games, three preseason contests and training camp under his belt, Patriots Dont’a Hightower has pretty much put his 2020 COVID opt-out season behind him.
He’s back in shape, football shape, and leading the New England defense that’s allowed a total of just 23 points in two games.
But Hightower admitted during a Wednesday press conference with reporters at Gillette Stadium that there is one aspect of his job that he’s stills struggling to get back into after the year off – meetings.
Yup, much like the rest of us – especially after months of working from home on our own schedules during a pandemic -- Hightower hates the many meetings that go with returning to the job of being a professional football player.
That, nothing else, has been the biggest hurdle he’s faced getting acclimated to daily life in Foxborough.
“Getting back to these meetings. In all honesty that’s probably the biggest takeaway from having a lot of liberation and kind of going along how I wanted to and then just…a lot of meetings,” Hightower said after a morning of meetings and walk throughs. “No lie. It’s definitely just the meetings is the worst part. Not coming back to football, not camp, not running…just the meetings. Getting back used to that.”
While there is no way to avoid the meetings, especially in Bill Belichick’s world, Hightower seems pleased with the way his body has responded into the return to football.
“A lot different than where I was last year, that’s for damn sure,” Hightower said of how he’s feeling physically at this point in the young season. “Just still trying to build. Again, I took a year off and no matter how much training you do or weight lifting or nutrition, it’s still year off. It’s still a year away. It’s still a year away from, yeah the physical aspect but the mental aspect of it too. I’ve played a lot of football. It’s just different being on the field and getting those reps just like the physical endurance is different. You can ride a bike and run sprints, but football shape is different. I’m enjoying it and just trying to get better each week.”