Chapter 201 199: Subtle Changes
Even with his adjusted training time and schedule, Lu Ke was still the first player to arrive at the training facility. The quiet facility had a unique charm.
After skillfully changing into his gear, Lu Ke didn't head to the practice field. Instead, he went straight to the gym and began his strength training.
Today was only the tenth day of his newly upgraded training plan. It was still the same tedious cycle, over and over again. But in truth, the improvement he felt was quite limited. Lu Ke could still feel the struggle brought on by the shackles of his natural talent.
These so-called shackles of talent were due to a mix of racial factors and genetic influences.
The innate talents of different races and populations are destined to be different. The most direct example is sprinting.
On the sprinting track, black athletes are the undisputed kings. Even white athletes are often at a disadvantage when competing against them. On the other hand, it's even harder for yellow athletes to make a breakthrough, as they have consistently been unable to shatter the ceiling of their natural talent.
To this day, Liu Xiang's breakthrough in the 110-meter hurdles, which truly broke down the barriers in sprinting events, remains incredible and difficult to replicate.
But objectively speaking, hurdling is a sport that combines skill and ability. Hurdling technique has a huge impact on the competition, which gave Asian athletes a sliver of an opportunity to break through. Otherwise, Liu Xiang wouldn't be the only Asian athlete to have achieved a breakthrough in sprinting to this day.
In the 21st century, the quality of training equipment, the level of training, scientific management, and the degree of effort have gradually formed a powerful force—one strong enough to challenge the shackles of talent. By pushing open that door, one could glimpse a brand new world, rediscovering and redeveloping one's own talent and potential.
Without hard work, talent certainly can't be developed. But sometimes, no matter how hard you work, physical limits still restrict the improvement of your abilities. It's like shooting accuracy in basketball. Some players train like crazy but still can't become great shooters. Yet other players don't need much practice to sink a shot with ease.
Talent isn't just about measurable data like height, arm span, vertical leap, and speed. It's much broader and deeper. Body coordination, game rhythm, competitive instincts, feel for the ball, a soft touch on the release—all these are innate skills that can neither be trained nor measured.
As a football quarterback, Lu Ke did possess talent. His feel for passing, his crisis awareness on the field, his on-the-spot decision-making, and his ability to read the game were all rare gifts. But beyond that, his muscular endurance, explosiveness, sense of rhythm, coordination, and physicality were all severely lacking.
After entering college, Lu Ke felt the ceiling of his natural abilities. No matter how hard he trained, the improvement in these areas was very limited.
After obtaining the Rugby Superstar System, the shackles of his talent seemed to crack open. He could forcibly improve his abilities through base points. Gradually, in addition to the base points, Lu Ke's grueling, day-after-day training also began to pay off, and he truly felt the changes and improvements in his physical condition.
The pace was slow, and the progress was faint, but the improvement over the past year was greater than all four years of college combined. Therefore, Lu Ke was not in a hurry at all.
However, over the past ten days, his improvement in strength training was still below expectations. For one, the training period was too short; results, after all, required accumulation over time. For another, breaking through the shackles of talent was incredibly difficult, which meant Lu Ke needed to put in ten, or even a hundred times more effort.
'Thinking back, JJ Watt's daily gym routine... now that's a real beast. Compared to Watt, I'm nowhere near "crazy" enough. I need to keep pushing.'
So, after finishing his strength training for the day, Lu Ke added another set of bench presses.
When he returned to the locker room, the cold, quiet scene was gone. Most of the players had arrived at the facility. The chattering and boisterous laughter echoed throughout the spacious room, creating waves of warmth. The bleak coolness of early autumn seemed to have vanished, replaced by the turbulent energy of midsummer.
"Bambi, you're done with training already?"
"Do you even have to ask? It's not like this is anything new."
"Bambi's not you, slacking off during every strength session and hiding snacks in your locker like a fourteen-year-old middle school girl!"
The playful teasing and jeering set off a chain reaction, making the locker room even noisier. Having been together for just under two months, the players had already grown accustomed to Lu Ke's grueling training regimen. The initial ridicule and mockery, contempt and disdain, had gradually evolved into a kind of nonchalant acceptance.
For one of the Undrafted Players, Lu Ke truly needed more training to catch up with the team's pace. Wasn't that the case?
Lu Ke smiled and greeted his teammates, expertly making his way to his locker. He took out his second set of training clothes, preparing to head to the team's strategy meeting, when a colorful poster fluttered out from his jersey and landed at his feet.
He bent down to pick it up. It was a homemade poster. On the right was the body of a naked woman, but the head had been cut and pasted over with Lu Ke's. Next to it was a speech bubble that read, "Show my parents some respect!"
This was the line Lu Ke had shouted at reporters after the first week of the regular season. In subsequent reports, many media outlets had mentioned it, once again urging fans to remain calm and refrain from extreme actions, especially against players' families, which was both irrational and immoral.
Now, the same sentence, pasted onto such a cobbled-together poster, was an act of blatant disrespect.
The image on the right was only part of it. On the left, a bright yellow megaphone was pictured, shouting, "Get out! We don't welcome clowns and comedians here."
"Bambi, what are you looking at?" Logan's voice suddenly boomed in his ear. Catching Lu Ke off guard, he snatched the poster from his hands. Then, he spun around, blocking Lu Ke with his back, and held the poster high. "Everyone, look! Someone wrote Bambi a love letter!"
Lu Ke opened his mouth, but before he could explain, before he could even get angry, he watched as Logan began to read aloud, "Get out..." Logan's voice came to an abrupt halt, his smile freezing on his face. He quickly scanned the rest of the poster, and rage instantly consumed him.
"Bambi, who gave this to you?" Logan said, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Lu Ke spread his hands, indicating he had no idea either.
Standing nearby, Marcus Lynch, Aldon Smith, and Kendall Hunter all ran over, grabbing the poster from Logan's hands to quickly look it over.
Logan couldn't suppress his anger, nor did he intend to. He spun around, red-faced, and roared, "This isn't funny! This isn't funny at all!"
The bustling locker room fell silent in an instant. The shout, like a sudden clap of thunder, drew everyone's attention. A few of the rookie players also gathered around, craning their necks around Lu Ke and Marcus to get a look at the poster. The atmosphere in the locker room grew tense.
Logan took two steps forward and pointed at Lu Ke. "Yes, he's one of the Undrafted Players! Yes, he's a player of Chinese Descent! But this is the player who led our team to two victories. And every single one of you knows damn well how hard those two victories were and what they mean!"
Logan was losing control, his anger uncontrollable. He started cursing recklessly, an endless stream of profanity that was impossible to describe. His flushed cheeks looked like they were on the verge of exploding—in fact, his rage already had.
"You can dislike Bambi, you can haze the rookies, but you can at least show some respect! Respect for Bambi's parents! I knew you guys don't like to use your brains, but I didn't know you didn't have any!"
Logan's accusations were clearly aimed at someone. Parris Harrisson's face was ashen, his hands clenched into fists. In the veteran players' eyes, this was just a harmless prank. But things were clearly getting out of control. Logan's curses grew uglier, gradually turning into personal attacks.
Parris naturally assumed that Lu Ke and the other rookies were getting arrogant because of the two wins, acting as if they were hot stuff. He instinctively clenched his fists, his muscles tensed all over. The situation was about to explode.
Seeing Logan in front of him, trembling slightly from extreme anger, Lu Ke's own rage actually subsided. Then he looked at Parris opposite them, whose facial expression began to distort as his anger also started to spin out of control.
Lu Ke stepped forward, trying to calm Logan down, but Logan didn't even turn his head. He shook off Lu Ke's right hand and kept his sharp gaze fixed on Parris, a torrent of angry rebukes pouring out of him.
"Use your brains, before you stuff them full of straw! Think about it! How stupid and ignorant is it to insult your own quarterback's parents and family like a bunch of lunatics! Bambi is your teammate! Your brother in arms! Is this your attitude? Is this how you repay him?"
"Logan!" Parris finally couldn't take it anymore. He angrily cut off the cursing and strode forward. "So, what's this all about? The rookies are trying to stage a rebellion? It's just a joke collage, what's with the overreaction? What's with you guys now? Think you're big shots already? Just two wins and you're acting all high and mighty?"
It wasn't just Parris. Six or seven other veteran players also stood up, forming a wall behind him and advancing menacingly. But the thing was, Lu Ke noticed that their gazes kept darting behind them.
'Behind them?'
Lu Ke turned his head and saw an astonishing sight.