The 49ers are heading to the NFL playoffs for the third time in four seasons, and that means things got even more serious than they already were.
Players are expected to eat, sleep and breathe football on their way to the Super Bowl, but that won’t be a problem for defensive end Nick Bosa.
“I know I won’t do anything different, because I’ve been a hermit for quite a while,” Bosa said Sunday from Levi’s Stadium after the 49ers finished the 2022 NFL season with a 38-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. “So I’ll be on it.”
Bosa’s dedication to both the game and his physique has paid off on the field this year, but it leaves little room for extracurricular activities for the 25-year-old.
And having faced the beast that is the postseason twice before, Bosa can serve as an example to teammates who may not know what to expect, or how best to prepare.
“We have to get everyone involved,” Bosa said. “It’s not that they haven’t already, but we have to make sure that young people who haven’t been through it know that this opportunity and this team that we have now is one that can’t be wasted.”
So what’s a night in the life of the average favorite for NFL Defensive Player of the Year like?
“I sit on my couch, fill my Game Ready machine with ice, put my legs up, and watch some shows,” Bosa explained. “And then I go to bed at 8:30, wake up, and go to work.”
Bosa added that rookie quarterback Brock Purdy is “in it,” with the latter’s focus being football.
The 49ers as a whole probably won’t need much of a reminder from Bosa, either, as the regular-season finale signals what he described as a “second wind” blowing through the locker room.
“It’s hard to keep the same routine and the same focus for 17, but when the playoffs come around, there’s a whole new energy and we have to get everyone involved,” Bosa said.
“…The mental grind that is a season, it wears you down. And then right when you get to the playoffs, you just get a second wind.”
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The 49ers’ newest mental grind is already underway, as they found out Sunday night that the Seattle Seahawks will be their opponent in Saturday’s NFC Wild Card game at Levi’s Stadium.
But with a dedicated hermit like Bosa at the helm, San Francisco has to like its odds.
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Source: news.google.com