Photo: The Canadian Press
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The brief but terrifying feeling of helplessness still gets Wes Schweitzer every time.
The New York Jets offensive lineman is scaling a rock — hand over hand, foot over foot — when he suddenly loses his grip, slips off the wall and plummets a few feet before landing.
“The rope can hold 20,000 pounds, so you’re totally safe, totally fine,” a smiling Schweitzer told The Associated Press after a recent training camp practice. "But every time I fall on the rope, I scream. I’m like, ‘Ahhh!’ You feel like you’re going to die for a second, you know?
“And people look at you funny, but then you realize other people are screaming, too, because it’s just a natural thing. You’re living in the moment and you’re trying not to fall and then you fall, so it’s surprising. So, yes, I still get scared.”
And Schweitzer loves every sometimes-harrowing moment.
Rock climbing has become a passion over the last several years for the 6-foot-4, 325-pounder — an anomaly in a sport in which the participants are predominantly much smaller.
“I’m kind of in uncharted territory,” Schweitzer acknowledged. “I get messages every day about how much I’m inspiring people. And I’m not trying to do this to be like that for others. But it’s really cool that people are looking to me for that because climbing is, well, really hard.”
Schweitzer has taken on indoor rock walls at gyms. He also enjoys bouldering, a form of climbing on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses and with pads placed on the ground. The big Arizonan who played at San Jose State has also ventured to some of the most popular outdoor climbs, such as Castle Rock in California, Rocktown in Georgia and the Shawangunk Mountains — aka The Gunks — in New York.
He uses climbing to stay in shape in the offseason for football and regularly posts videos and pictures of his rock-scaling adventures on social media.
“I love it,” Jets offensive line coach Keith Carter said. “I don’t have social media, but I hear about them all the time. Just picturing him climbing up a rock wall is impressive.”
Schweitzer has made the team aware of his passion for climbing — “No one's told me to stop quite yet” — and he stresses safety.
“I think the biggest part of it is they can see my performance on the field,” he said. “And they were like, ‘Oh, if it’s working for him, then keep doing what you’re doing, as long as you don’t get hurt, obviously.’ It’s not any more dangerous than anything else, as long as you’re doing it the right way.”
Schweitzer, who turns 31 next month, hyperextended an elbow early in his NFL career after being drafted in the sixth round by Atlanta in 2016. After traditional rehabilitation for a year never fully healed him, Schweitzer turned to a trainer who recommended he try climbing a rock wall.
“And within five minutes, I was pain free,” Schweitzer recalled. “Something that bothered me for a year.”
So, he kept climbing.
“I gained like 15 pounds of muscle and my play started to get better,” he said. “Now I’ve been doing it for years and years and I’m going outside and I’m doing harder and harder stuff. I’m climbing 200-foot routes and it’s built my confidence up because every day you’re going to get challenged to the maximum.
“This sport of climbing challenges everything that football challenges and also has made me such a better player. I can’t recommend it enough to everybody.”
Schweitzer, who signed a two-year deal with the Jets in March 2023, is a versatile member of New York's offensive line as a backup and spot starter who can play both guard spots and center. And climbing is a prominent part of how he prepares for each season.
“The benefits are through the roof,” Schweitzer said. “The most basic thing is that you grab onto holds and they get harder and harder to hold on to. When I grab shoulder pads now, it’s like I’m holding onto handlebars compared to when I was grabbing on something that was much more difficult to hold on to.
"It’s core strength, but I have to produce power through all my limbs. And then you’re on your toes, so it’s also calves, hips, glutes.”
Schweitzer has talked up climbing to his teammates over the years and taken some out with him.
“But usually they’re exhausted in 10 minutes and they don’t come back,” he said with a laugh.
During the season, Schweitzer sticks to climbing indoor rock walls as a supplement to his regular football workouts.
His goal after football is to someday free climb — using your hands and feet to find handholds and footholds while using a rope tied to a harness — El Capitan, a 3,000-foot tall rock formation in Yosemite National Park in California.
“If you’ve been there and you see that thing, it’s a mile tall and you’re like, this is as cool as it gets,” Schweitzer said. "I’m always an ambitious dreamer, but we’ll see. I just want to push the sport. I want to lose weight to 300 (pounds) and then I want to set benchmarks for, like, no other 300-pound person’s going to be able to do what I’ve done.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to do what I’ve done already, but I want to make it so that it is a firm, like, this is the limit. And then I want to cut as much weight as possible and see what I can do.”
Until then, Schweitzer will keep trying to help the playoff-hungry Jets reach new heights on the football field.
“With teammates, climbing's a talking point,” he said. “I think now at this point in my career, it’s like a selling point. It makes me a little bit different. And I’m proud of it.”
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