Tommy Bohanon adds a potent weapon as a pass catcher to the West Coast offense.
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Chronic sweating is no laughing matter, and when it comes to Jets rookie fullback Tommy Bohanon, the Jets training staff certainly isn’t chuckling. In fact, they have equipped his locker to accommodate his profuse perspiration.
During rookie minicamp and again in offseason workouts, it became apparent that Bohanon perspires more than the average player on the Jets roster. It has always been that way for Bohanon, who remembers having his mother pick him up at the park after playing with his friends and having to change his clothes before he got in the car. He sweats all over the place and he can’t remember a time when he played a sport and wasn’t drenched in sweat.
“I was going through new cleats every two or three days during training camp. I would sweat so much that the shoe just wouldn’t be wearable at a certain point,” Bohanon told Metro. “You could hear it when I walked — the ‘squish’ of my cleats as I would walk. When I’d take them off, they’d be soaked all the way through.”
It is certainly a liability with regards to footing on the field but it is an issue for the Jets who kept footing the bill to replace his cleats. So after battling with this issue for several weeks, the training staff took the step of installing a PEET Shoe Dryer in his locker.
The concept is simple. After practice, Bohanon takes off his drenched cleats and flips them upside down so that they slide onto the shoe dryer stand. He then turns the machine on for three hours and it begins to blow warm air up inside the shoe, quickly drying it off.
The faster they can be dried off the less likely they are to warp and need replacing. As Bohanon towels himself off after practice, the shoe dryer is humming quietly in the background.
“I am not replacing them nearly as fast. I don’t know the difference but all I know is that it isn’t every couple practices like before,” Bohanon said. “Maybe a week or every couple weeks, I don’t know. But they even feel better and different.
“I might need to get one of these for home.”
He will have to be surefooted this Sunday at the Titans with an expanded role. Chris Ivory, a featured part of the running back rotation, is out with a hamstring injury, leaving Bilal Powell and Alex Green as the only running backs on the 53-man roster. Head coach Rex Ryan said on Thursday that Bohanon could play some running back.
“Yeah, I did that [in college] at Wake [Forest]. I’m comfortable with that,” Bohanon said. “It really isn’t that different and it is something I’ve done before so if I’m called upon to do that, I will take on that extra role and responsibility.”
With snaps at fullback and running back looming this week, those might be some very sweaty cleats by game’s end.
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
