Kelly: Pete Bommarito has spent two decades getting hundreds ready for the NFL
On a humid South Florida morning where the sun is on full blast at 8 a.m., Pete Bommarito’s is adorned in all black, and so is his army of employees.
The field is filled with nervous energy from the dozens of athletes warming up in their underwear to run their first 40-yard dash at the mock combine, one of America’s top athletic trainers has scheduled for this Wednesday morning at his facility.
Despite the scorching heat, Bommarito’s as cool as the other side of the pillow because he’s there to calm the nerves of all his NFL hopefuls, football talents who have put their future in his hands, just like many others did before them.
“You get to that Combine and you’ll learn about pressure,” Bommarito warns, referring to an annual event the NFL hosts in Indianapolis, which is like a major job interview for 329 invited participants who undergo medical testing, interviews, and on-field workouts for all 32 NFL teams. “You have to lock in as if 5,000 eyes are on you, because they are.”
And those eyes determine what round a prospect will be taken in, which dictates how much money a professional football player will earn for the next four or five seasons. Their combine, or Pro Day showing also helps decide their future home, employer, and usually dictates the journey their NFL careers start on.
It’s the starting line, and nobody wants to stumble out the gate, tripping up on a performance.
That’s why NFL players, from draft prospects to Pro Bowlers, and their agents pay thousands annually to train for a few weeks at Bommarito Performance Systems, which has a facility in Davie and the Aventura area.
“The process is the process, and that’s probably the hardest thing. We have to remember this isn’t football,” said Hurricanes receiver Xavier Restrepo, who could drastically elevate his draft stock by running a 40-yard dash time in the 4.4s at the NFL Combine.
“This looks like easy work. We’re all athletes. We’re supposed to rip this,” said Chris Hunter, a linebacker from UT-Martin who is one of the 96 draft prospects Bommarito is training this spring. “But the first week I was here I didn’t know the technique and hurt myself.
“You got to trust the process.”
Learning the process is why these aspiring NFL players hang onto every word Bommarito says about their workouts, diet, body mechanics, and rehab (two hours a day) for more than two decades.
When Bommarito says jump, they do so then ask him ‘how high was it,’ or ‘how far’ they went because they know his instruction, even on the smallest thing like hand positioning, matters.
For years, I have known that a Bommarito endorsement — which he doesn’t give out generously — equates to a future NFL starter, if not superstar.
I vividly remember attending a workout in 2015, primarily there to see DeVante Parker, a Louisville receiver the Dolphins selected with the 14th pick in that year’s draft.
“Oh, you here to see DeVante? Cool! Make sure you watch me too,” said an unknown receiver from Maryland who was then projected as a late-round pick.
That player was Stefon Diggs, who outshined Parker in that day’s workout. Diggs was taken in the fifth round of that draft, but turned into a four-time Pro Bowler, and an immediate NFL standout.
And that’s just one of dozens of superstars who entered the league with a Bommarito stamp of approval, which teams pay attention to.
Half the time Bommarito can’t tell you what position a guy plays, or where he’s projected to be drafted.
But he always knows the player’s name and schools.
And he can run down their medical history too because his team specializes in healing ailments that linger, and could lead to a medical red-flag that hurts a player’s draft stock.
And Bommarito definitely knows the athletes who grind, the gym rats who get the most out of their ability, require little encouragment, and are quick learners.
His job is to manage their rehab, transform their body, and train these athlete on how to conduct themselves during the dog and pony show the NFL puts prospects through at the combine, using tests like a 40-yard dash, a broad jump, the L-drill and 3-cone run to measure pure athleticism.
Getting those measurables is how the NFL stacks up the apples to apples [Parker vs. Diggs] and the oranges with other oranges.
Smael Molden showed up to Bommarito’s late because of the University of Georgia’s run in the college football postseason, and the week he spent competing at the Senior Bowl, working to win over scouts.
At this point his body needs rest and recovery, but the highly touted inside linebacker is pushing himself to run the 40-yard dash at the combine on Feb. 27 because the surface the Bulldogs run on at their Pro Day is notoriously slow.
Molden claims he has already shaved three tenths of a second off the initial 40-time he ran for Bommarito, simply by learning proper technique. But his performance on Wednesday wasn’t to his satisfaction. Not that it was bad, but running something in the low 4.5s would likely cement this top-50 talent as a second-day pick, and that’s worth millions.
“I came here and saw the oatmeal and I was like, ‘what are we doing?” Molden said, complaining about the pre-workout breakfast, which is part of the strict diet players must adhere to. “I’m from Georgia and they take care of us. That was a little challenging, but I’ve learned to trust Pete.”
And trust the process.
“I need eight weeks. You got to give me eight weeks. If you give me eight weeks I’ll have you shining,” Bommarito told Molden in a post-workout talk. “You got to trust the process.”
That saying might as well be Bommarito’s theme song because it’s said so much at his facilities.
“Eight weeks is the minimum standard of what I want. Some guys get 10 to 12 weeks. Some guys get four and a half,” Bommarito explained later. “Give me eight weeks and I’ll get you good, to great results.”
And that’s exactly why the NFL’s past, present and future continues to lean on Bommarito’s services.
