ExtremeRavens Posted Thursday at 01:30 PM Posted Thursday at 01:30 PM AJ Billings was up in a corner suite at M&T Bank Stadium, just starting to settle in beside Derrick Henry’s girlfriend, Adrianna Rivas, and the rest of the Ravens running back’s family. His butt hadn’t touched the seat yet when he turned to Rivas, saying, “Oh my [expletive] God. Did that really just happen?” It was a warm welcome for Henry’s longtime trainer visiting Baltimore for the first time, in town to catch Ravens vs. Bills on “Sunday Night Football.” One effortless cut back on an inside zone run sent Henry blistering into open field on the Ravens’ first play from scrimmage. He took it 87 yards untouched to the end zone. The suite couldn’t believe it. It sent the purple crowd into a frenzy. It’s fair to assume folks at home were shocked too, watching the biggest running back in the NFL clock 21.29 mph. Billings was stirred by the moment. He wasn’t surprised. For one, Henry told Billings the night before about a few scripted plays to open the game and how if fullback Pat Ricard could cleanly execute the trap block to fling the door open there, Henry promised he could take it to the house. And two, it was a movement he and Billings thought about on a hillside in July. Billings was a college athlete himself, playing defensive back at East Texas A&M. After getting his graduate degree at Texas A&M, he started working at independent gyms in the Dallas area while connecting with prominent sports agencies and athletes. He joined former NBA player Melvin Sanders in 2017 at his vaunted downtown training center, eventually climbing to vice president of performance. Billings was taking a cycling class in Dallas when he met Rivas. That’s how he first met Henry and their families bonded. Their daughters play soccer together. There’s plenty of non-football talk between Henry and Billings before the work starts and well after they’ve packed up for the day. But what’s he like in between all that, when the real work gets done? “Real quiet,” Billings said with a laugh. The past eight years, Billings has had a front-row seat to the making of a Hall of Famer. Something felt different about this past summer, as Henry signed with a Super Bowl contender to play alongside two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson. He told Billings, “this was going to be one of those years that’s not going to be forgotten.” There’s a cable-stayed bridge over the Trinity River in inner city Dallas. Behind it is a grass hill about 70 yards steep. That’s Henry and Billings’ favorite place to train together. For them, Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge feels like they’re in the trenches. It’s just Henry and Billings under the sweltering Texas sun — sometimes as hot as 110 or 115 degrees — packing no more than a couple cones, a football and a speaker. But Billings had never seen Henry dance until his Week 18 jig after a touchdown against Cleveland. Henry brings a quietly intense demeanor. He reaches into the depths of his subconscious to keep pushing in a way few can. At least no one Billings has encountered. Derrick Henry’s longtime trainer, AJ Billings, has had a front-row seat to the making of a Hall of Famer. (Denzel Brown @getknarly/Courtesy) Billings works with over 100 athletes, many of whom are at the top of their profession. He’s well read, always seeking new ways to motivate his clientele. He explained during a recent phone call that in high-pressure situations, your subconscious is forced to make a decision between logic and ego and emotions. “Ninety-nine or 100% of the time,” he said, “your body will choose emotions.” Not Henry. He pushes past logic to stress the limits of his body. Where that comes from, Billings can only speculate. Henry’s grandmother has been an all-important emotional motivation, particularly since she died in 2016, two days after his NFL debut. He wrote about her impact in 2018 for The Players’ Tribune. Billings also ventured to say Henry being one of just two Heisman Trophy winners drafted outside the first round over the past two decades gave him an edge. Watching teams pass over the now 31-year-old this offseason only poured kerosene on that fire. “He can bench the world. He can squat the world. He can lift the world. He can do all of those things,” Billings said. “From there, the mentality that he has is different than anybody that I’ve worked with.” That all manifests in few words and chunk yardage. They were six weeks out from training camp and Henry was showing Billings on an iPad the type of run formations he expected to see under offensive coordinator Todd Monken. Henry’s ability to hit a second gear 30 yards upfield is a direct credit to the duo being intentional drilling one jump cut and burst runs on a hill three-fourths of a football field. That’s where Billings’ mind flies to watching Henry take one 87 yards against Buffalo, or 51 vs. Cincinnati in October, 81 at Tampa Bay two weeks later and 44 vs. Pittsburgh last week with a resemblance to Lightning McQueen, according to his quarterback. “The work gon’ always show,” they’ll say to one another. Henry can make a perfectionist look apathetic. If Billings calls for 10 runs up that hill, Henry might do 20 because the 10 have to be exceptional. “He doesn’t like to do any bad reps,” Billings said. Henry might get to the top of the hill drenched in sweat, his hands pressing into his knees, and his trainer will say, “That was 10 reps right there, D.” “Those last two,” Henry muffles back, “those don’t count. That wasn’t up to par.” The speed maybe didn’t meet his standard. Or the tempo slipped by a millisecond. Ravens running backs coach Willie Taggart knows that side of Henry too. “I’ll get a text or a picture of a frame from a game, saying, ‘Coach, I should have hit this hole,’ or ‘We should do this,’” he said. On Sundays, Henry comes off the sideline and jogs directly to Taggart seeking feedback. Days after a Week 13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Taggart said, “It can be the smallest thing, and he just hates it so much. I got a text last night. It just said, ‘Coach, I’m still ticked about this game.’” Ravens coach John Harbaugh, left, celebrates a playoff win over the Steelers with running back Derrick Henry. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) When Taggart met Henry in the offseason, his first impression was, “Damn, Elon Musk must’ve built him. He got a Cybertruck system in him.” Taggart’s second impression was that Henry, who’s been in the NFL for nine years, still practices like a rookie. Henry hasn’t missed a practice all year. He fit seamlessly into the running back room, which Taggart credits sixth-year pro Justice Hill for. And just like Billings, when Taggart offers a moment to rest, Henry respectfully declines. Billings has hosted group workouts in Dallas. He remembers younger athletes having left wondering if Henry hates them because of how intense he got. “He’s a big teddy bear,” Billings said, but “on the field he might hurt you.” All of those grueling hours have built to this point: 1,921 regular-season yards in his rearview mirror. Another 186 and two touchdowns to help send the Steelers packing in the AFC wild-card round. Days out from a trip to Buffalo for a heavyweight AFC divisional game. Two wins from a Super Bowl appearance. January football is when Henry does his most damage, having accumulated 715 yards behind 118 carries in five late-winter games. That’s 6.06 yards per touch when he can see his own breath, 1.21 yards more than his career average. On the most recent episode of “Hard Knocks,” coach John Harbaugh likened Henry stomping over the gelid winter grass to an “elk on the Montana tundra.” On that same episode of “Hard Knocks,” he asked his teammates, “You want to win the Super Bowl or you want to go home?” Taggart said Henry hasn’t been shy in the running back room about verbalizing his expectations. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey sensed his “locked-in-ness went to another level” as the calendar flipped over. The Ravens now sit three wins away from stamping this year, as Henry told Billings in the summer Texas heat, one that won’t be forgotten. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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