Comparing training camp to basic training with Seahawks’ ex-Green Beret, Nate Boyer

Nate Boyer has life experience unlike any other player on the Seahawks roster, the long snapper being a former Green Beret with combat experience in multiple tours of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

What Boyer hadn’t experienced until last week, however, was the rigors of an NFL training camp. And while he said it’s not nearly as difficult as basic training in the military, it’s still quite the challenge for the 34-year-old rookie.

“What’s difficult about training camp,” Boyer told 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Danny, Dave and Moore” on Thursday, “is the physical aspect for me. It’s just the fact that I’m going against these giant athletes that are bigger, stronger and faster than anybody in the world, really … I’m not like one of these guys as far as gifted or blessed athletically, really in any way. I work really hard and I’m a decent athlete, but I definitely had to put so much time into everything that I did and so much dedication and just be convicted for everything.

“I just have a different approach.”

At 5 foot 10 and 216 pounds, that approach is necessary as he lines up as a classic underdog against a mass of man on the other side of the snap. Where he has an advantage, though, is mentally, where his experience from military experience and training is unmatched.

“There’s no mental wall I’m hitting or anything like that (in training camp), like what happens often in basic training or any kind of training in the military where they try to break you down.”

Boyer is prepared for trials and tribulations with the Seahawks, especially knowing what the team went through in the Super Bowl last season, though they won’t compare to what he saw in his time in the Special Forces.

“This team has been there. They’ve been through tough stuff,” he said. “Obviously it’s not the same as being in a firefight or losing your friends on the battlefield or something like that, because that’s really difficult. That’s maybe one of the hardest things that there is to have to face.”

To hear the entire Boyer interview, click here.

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