If nothing else, the Chicago Bears should bring a bit more strength to the field this year…
The Bears recently hired Mark Philippi as lead assistant strength coach. He was an offensive lineman at Montana Tech from 1983 to 1987 and has three decades of strength and conditioning experience, including a stint at UNLV as an instructor and designer of their Academic Strength Curriculum.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that he also has a quite impressive resume of personal strength feats as well, including an 849 pound deadlift, 810 pound squat, 540lb bench, and held a 28lb crucifix hold for 79.80 seconds, good enough for the world record…
As you may have guessed by this point, Mark Philippi is a former World’s Strongest Man competitor. In fact, he competed in the premier strongman event 7 times in his career, placing in the Top 10 twice, and also won the inaugural America’s Strongest Man title in 1997.
Safe to say, this man was an absolute BEAST in his prime. Just watch him toss this 368 pound axel over his head with ease…
Honestly, he still looks quite capable…
Admittedly, this doesn’t guarantee the Bears will actually improve because of this signing, and that has nothing to do with Mark and everything to do with the fact that they’re still the Bears…
They haven’t had a winning season since 2018 and haven’t won a playoff game since 2010. They’ve got (probably) their franchise quarterback in Caleb Williams and a talented offense, but time will tell if this will all play out for him.
I’ll be rooting for him, that’s for sure. If you were like me, you probably remember those Saturday mornings when ESPN re-ran old World Strongest Man competitions. For years of my life (and still to an extent today) I wanted to be like those dudes, just out there operating right at the limits of human potential, firing hundred pound kegs into the air, pulling trucks, squatting cars, I mean if there’s a better way to promote powerful masculinity in the world, it has to be through strongmen because they were all pretty much great guys in addition to being strong as gorillas.
I actually got to attend the World’s Strongest Man competition in person a few years back and let me say, these guys are so much bigger than they look on TV… I got a picture with Trey Mitchell (keep an eye out, he’s got a real chance at winning the whole thing in the next few years if he stays healthy and can overcome chronic grip problems) and have never felt smaller in my entire life. Not that I’m a big guy but it truly felt like he could have picked me up, wrapped me in a blanket, and cradled my like a baby had he gotten the urge.
All of that being said, it’s awesome that a respected legend like Mark Philippi is getting a chance to show his mettle in the NFL. Football is pretty much using as much power as you can generate at one time repeatedly, and who’s actually better at it than strongmen?
Here’s Mark Philippi absolutely dominating a car hold back at the 2000 World’s Strongest Man competition…
The post The Chicago Bears Just Hired A World Record Holding Strongman To Their Coaching Staff first appeared on Whiskey Riff.