A Kings GM Asked Me How to Build a Dynasty. Here's Exactly What I Told Him.

Joe Caligiuri of Stadium Performance - Super Bowl IIIXI Game Ball

Every NFL team operates with the same salary cap, similar facilities, and access to identical research and resources. The New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, and every other franchise employ strength coaches who attend the same conferences, read the same journals, and have access to the same equipment manufacturers. The programming differences between organizations are minimal. The culture differences are enormous.

Bill Belichick wins Super Bowl XXXIX

I know this because I lived it.

From 2004 to 2006, I served on the New England Patriots Sports Medicine staff during the dynasty years. I earned a Super Bowl XXXIX Championship ring—their third Super Bowl win in four years. That 2004 championship set the stage for what became the most dominant run in NFL history: Super Bowl XXXVI (2001), XXXVIII (2003), XXXIX (2004), XLIX (2014), LI (2016), and LIII (2018). Six championships. Two decades of sustained excellence.

I caught balls for Tom Brady on a daily basis. I performed manual therapy on his arm. I assisted in Tedy Bruschi's stroke rehabilitation—watching a man fight his way back to the field after a life-threatening medical event. I became entrusted by Patriots GM Scott Pioli to be present for phone calls and discussions that shaped the organization. At one point, my resume reference page included Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, and Dante Scarnecchia—three men who defined what winning culture looks like at the highest level.

Do I know a thing or two about behind the scenes of a winning team? Yes.

One week after the Los Angeles Kings hired me in 2006, I received a call to the front office. I walked into the GM's office and found myself facing Luc Robitaille, Kings President; Dean Lombardi, Kings GM; Marc Crawford, Kings Head Coach; and Ron Hextall, Kings Assistant GM.

"Tell us how to build a dynasty," Dean said to me.

That question—and the years I spent helping answer it as part of a complete 32-man staff rebuild that culminated in a Stanley Cup championship—confirmed everything I learned in New England. Championship cultures transcend sports. The principles remain constant. The commitment required remains constant.

The Fitness Profile of a Championship Player

The fitness profile of an elite NFL player consists of seven components: Nutrition, Conditioning, Speed & Quickness Training, Skill Development, Flexibility, Muscular Fitness, and Rest. Every organization addresses these same seven components. The difference lies in how seriously players commit to the process and how effectively the organization enforces accountability.

The truth is simple: many athletes can be disciplined for a workout, a week, or a month. The commitment of a true professional spans an entire career.

In New England, this was not a suggestion. It was the expectation. Players who could not sustain commitment did not remain Patriots. The organization filtered for character as aggressively as it filtered for talent.

The success of any program depends completely on those who deliver it, those who give it a chance, and those who roll with the ups and downs within it. Programming alone wins nothing. Culture wins championships.

The Off-Season: Where Championships Are Built or Lost

The NFL calendar divides into five distinct periods. The first period—from the end of the last game until the off-season conditioning program begins—separates championship-caliber players from everyone else.

The directive is simple: do not gain any weight. Not a single pound. Players who follow this instruction enter the second period ready to build. Players who ignore it spend weeks reversing damage before making progress.

I watched this play out every year in New England. The players who returned in peak condition were the same players who performed in January. The correlation was not coincidental. It was causal.

The second period runs from the beginning of the off-season conditioning program through the spring coaching sessions. Organized lifting workouts and supervised running sessions establish the foundation for summer camp. Maximum fitness levels can be generated by training camp only if players avoided excess body fat during the first period and sustained disciplined work habits throughout the entire off-season.

Sporadic training produces sub-maximal results. Every NFL strength staff knows this. The organizations that win consistently are the ones where players internalize this truth and hold each other accountable.

The Patriots locker room policed itself. Veterans did not tolerate teammates who cut corners. The standard was established by players like Tedy Bruschi, who returned to the field after a stroke through sheer force of will and disciplined rehabilitation. When that is the example set by team leaders, excuses become impossible.

The third period covers spring coaching sessions. Players must arrive in good football running shape to meet the rigors of on-field work, conditioning, and weight workouts. Organizations that allow players to show up unprepared create a culture of mediocrity that compounds throughout the year.

The fourth period—from the end of coaching sessions until summer camp—tests individual discipline. No coaches are watching. No teammates are present. Players who become inactive during this period arrive at camp behind. Players who schedule brief recovery time and then resume training arrive ready to compete.

The fifth period spans summer camp through the final game. This is when players need to be strongest and most fit. Seven weeks of camp followed by seventeen regular season weeks, potentially extended by five playoff weeks, demands everything from the body.

Near maximum strength and fitness levels can only be maintained if players remain disciplined on and off the field, follow sound nutrition habits, get adequate rest, exhibit near maximum effort each weight workout, and practice fast to develop the fitness levels needed to play the game.

Every NFL team communicates these expectations. The teams that build cultures enforcing them win more games. The Patriots enforced them relentlessly, which is why they won more games than anyone.

The Weight Room: Quality Over Quantity

The foundation of all strength programs is the repetition. How players perform each rep determines whether they stimulate gains or waste time. The protocol is precise. Force the muscles to perform all of the work while raising the weight. Pause momentarily in the muscle's contracted position. Emphasize the lowering of the weight.

Most players focus on how much weight they lift. Championship players focus on how they lift the weight. Some athletes are more concerned with the number on the bar rather than the quality of the movement. There are many ways to make an exercise easier and less productive while lifting more weight.

The brain is a sophisticated mechanism. It recruits only as many muscle fibers as needed to raise a weight. No more, no less. You cannot fool it. Bouncing, jerking, or using momentum sends a message to recruit fewer fibers. Strict form with controlled speed forces maximum recruitment.

The muscles that raise a weight are the same muscles used to lower it. One half of an exercise is raising the weight. The other half is lowering it. Gains come from both phases. Due to gravity, lowering a weight is easier. Players can lower significantly more weight than they can lift. Taking more time during the lowering phase makes the exercise harder and more productive.

Players who understand this principle make gains year after year. Players who chase ego lifts plateau and wonder why. The question every player must answer honestly: how much time and at what level of intensity did you expose your muscles to quality exercise? Not enough intensity produces no progress. Too much volume prevents recovery.

Tom Brady understood this. His longevity—playing at an elite level into his mid-forties—was not accidental. It resulted from meticulous attention to training quality, recovery, and nutrition. Every rep mattered. Every meal mattered. Every hour of sleep mattered. The compound effect of thousands of correct daily decisions created a career that redefined what was possible.

Program Organization: Balance and Total Development

Balance is the key to NFL strength programming. Total body development is essential for a football player. Every major and minor muscle group must be developed to its full potential. If too much time is spent performing one exercise or developing a specific area of the body, it comes at the expense of other areas.

Many young players enter the league having spent endless hours bench pressing. They have well-developed pecs. However, many are deficient in other areas: the neck, rotator cuff, upper back, posterior deltoid, hamstrings, and midsection.

Championship organizations place equal value on every exercise performed. This approach is essential if injury prevention and total body development are the goals.

The neck muscles deserve particular attention. They serve as a protective mechanism for the spinal cord and nervous system. Successive collisions accumulate and erode the structural integrity of tendons, ligaments, and joints. Muscles serve as shock absorbers. Protective gear and muscle strength are all players have to absorb impact. It is not just one collision, but the cumulative effect of many.

Players who ignore exercises they dislike or body parts they have neglected stand to gain the most from addressing those weaknesses. Championship cultures do not allow players to skip uncomfortable work.

Working with Tedy Bruschi during his stroke rehabilitation taught me how interconnected the body truly is. Recovery required addressing every system—neurological, cardiovascular, muscular. Shortcuts were not an option. The same principle applies to strength training. The body functions as an integrated unit. Neglecting any component creates vulnerability.

In-Season Training: The True Separator

The most revealing aspect of any NFL strength program is in-season training. This is where organizational culture becomes visible. Strength losses are rapid. Significant amounts of strength and muscular body weight disappear unless meaningful strength work is performed at least twice a week from the first day of summer camp until the last game of the season. The off-season strength program must mirror the in-season strength program.

Monday after a game, players are stiff and sore. The temptation to use light weights and go through the motions is enormous. Championship organizations reject this approach entirely.

Using sub-maximal weights results in rapid decline in strength and corresponding decrease in muscular body weight. Maintaining near maximum strength levels for the entire season becomes an advantage as the season progresses.

Teams that fade in December often share a common thread: their in-season strength training became optional or low-intensity. Teams that finish strong maintain the same standards in Week 17 that they established in Week 1.

The Patriots never faded in December. They were built to peak when it mattered most. The in-season training standards never wavered. Players knew the expectations and met them because the culture demanded it.

Training the day after a game is hard. Players are sore and tired. However, it is the best day to lift during the season. It helps alleviate muscle soreness. Players physically feel better at the end of their total body weight workout and are less sore on Tuesday. It also prepares them for a second productive workout later in the week.

The conditions for maintaining near-maximum strength levels are clear. Players must avoid serious injury, train hard despite minor bumps and bruises, train unaffected body parts when injured, perform meaningful and intense exercise every workout, work hard to regain any loss in strength, keep accurate records to prevent sub-maximal efforts, develop consistent eating habits, avoid alcohol abuse, and get necessary sleep.

It makes little sense to lift hard in the off-season and not work equally hard when it can make the most difference—during the season. Every NFL team has access to this information. The teams that build cultures enforcing these standards win more games in January.

Recovery: The Overlooked Component

Rest is the seventh component of the fitness formula and the most frequently ignored.

Exercise does metabolic damage to the body. This damage is repaired during the recovery phase. Players do not get stronger from lifting a weight. Overload is the necessary stimulus. Gains in strength are made during the resting phase.

If lifting by itself generated strength gains, players could lift seven days a week. They could perform an unlimited number of exercises and continue making gains. They could run endless intervals and improve conditioning. This is obviously not how the body works.

There is one energy system used to recover from exercise. The same system recovers from lifting, running, practice, and games. The energy available to recover is limited. The ability to recover varies with the individual.

Championship organizations teach players to find out how little exercise they can perform to stimulate the best gains, not how much. Professional football players are not bodybuilders, weight lifters, or track athletes. Physical preparation is paramount, but players must also spend energy practicing and playing the game.

After warming up, every exercise in the weight room must count. Players should not waste sets on non-productive exercise. They should run as few quality intervals as needed to stimulate the best gains.

Maximum gains come from the right amount of quality exercise combined with the proper amount of rest. Exercise should make players feel better and perform better. If it does not, they may be doing too much exercise or not allowing adequate rest.

There are indicators that help determine recovery status. Feeling lethargic, losing strength, or experiencing unusual soreness going into a typical workout are signs of over-training.

If players stop making progress before reaching expected fitness levels, they should cut back on exercise volume rather than add more. This advice is counterintuitive for competitive athletes, but the science is clear.

Good eating habits enhance recovery. Eating meals and snacks at approximately the same time every day helps. Developing normal and regular sleep patterns supports the recovery process. A lack of daily routine disrupts the systems the body uses to recover.

As players grow older, they may need more rest than younger teammates. Organizations that respect these individual differences maintain player health longer. Tom Brady's career longevity demonstrated this principle. His recovery protocols became more sophisticated and more prioritized as he aged, allowing him to compete at the highest level years beyond when most quarterbacks retire.

Speed and Skill Development: The Genetic Truth

Speed and quickness are inherited abilities. Players cannot develop more speed than their genetic potential allows. Too much emphasis is placed upon running in a straight line. The 40-yard sprint receives disproportionate attention. Football speed—the position-specific quickness used to play the game—is the key to success, not straight-line track speed. Some athletes run fast in a straight line but cannot quickly change direction. The goal is to develop the specific speed and quickness used to play each position and a level of conditioning to sustain that speed and quickness during a game.

The most important variable for speed development is practicing running fast. The neurological and muscular systems must learn to coordinate at maximum speeds. This requires complete rest between sprints and running at absolute maximum effort.

Skill transfer between activities does not occur the way many coaches believe. Skills are very specific. The execution of any skill requires a sophisticated series of signals sent from the brain to the muscles. Muscle fibers must be activated in the proper sequence to perform a skill with proficiency.

Practice of nonspecific coordination or quickening tasks will not produce transfer to specific sport skills. Jumping rope improves the skill of jumping rope. It does not improve foot speed for football. Hitting a speed bag improves the skill of hitting a speed bag. It does not improve hand speed for blocking.

The organizations that understand this principle do not waste player time and energy on ineffective training methods. They focus training time on the actual skills players use to play their positions. Bill Belichick understood this better than any coach I worked with. Practice time was sacred. Every drill served a purpose. Nothing was wasted. Players practiced exactly what they would execute on game day because that was the only way to develop the specific skills required.

Conditioning: Developing the Right Energy Systems

The energy used to play football comes from two predominant systems: aerobic and anaerobic. The aerobic system draws energy from oxygen. The anaerobic system draws energy from ATP and glycogen stored within the muscles.

Football relies primarily on the anaerobic system. Most plays last between a few seconds and sixty seconds, followed by rest. This is why conditioning programs for football emphasize interval training rather than long-distance running.

Conditioning is very specific. The demands on the muscular system while running sprints straight ahead differ from running pass routes in full pads. The demands differ by position as well. The only way to develop the exact level of conditioning needed to play football is to actually play football.

Off-season running prepares players to survive summer camp. Summer camp prepares players for preseason games. Preseason games prepare players for the regular season. Each stage presents new demands that the body must adapt to.

Players cannot match the specific demands of a 14-play drive during a game until they actually do it. Neck muscles only adapt to carrying helmet weight by practicing in a helmet. Specific conditioning demands can only be developed through specific activities.

Championship organizations design conditioning programs that progressively prepare players for the actual demands of the season. They do not waste time on conditioning work that fails to transfer to game performance.

The Culture Difference

The New England Patriots dynasty—spanning two decades—was not built on secret training methods unavailable to other teams. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s did not have access to better equipment than their competitors. The current Kansas City Chiefs do not employ strength coaches with proprietary knowledge hidden from the rest of the league.

What championship organizations build is culture.

When Dean Lombardi asked me to explain how to build a dynasty, I did not hand him a training manual. I described an environment. I described accountability. I described the daily habits that separated the Patriots from teams with equal talent that won nothing.

The Kings listened. They committed. They built a culture that produced a Stanley Cup championship. The training methods and insights I learned working with NHL greats like Rob Blake, Ron Hextall, Anze Kopitar, and Drew Doughty confirmed everything I experienced in New England. Championship organizations share common characteristics regardless of sport.

Every NFL player would claim willingness to sacrifice everything for a Super Bowl in February. Championship organizations create environments where players still demonstrate that willingness in November, when they are tired, sore, and facing their eighth consecutive week of games.

The fitness formula is straightforward. There are no gadgets or gimmicks. No pills or potions. Nutrition discipline, proper conditioning, sound strength training, adequate rest, and attention to the fundamentals of speed and skill development.

Every NFL organization knows this formula. The organizations that win create cultures where players follow it consistently, hold each other accountable, and refuse to accept shortcuts.

The programming between teams is essentially identical. The culture determines whether that programming produces champions.

The success of any program depends completely on three groups: those who deliver it, those who give it a chance, and those who roll with the ups and downs within it. Strength coaches can design perfect programs that fail because players do not buy in. Players can commit fully to programs that fail because coaches do not enforce standards. Organizations can employ excellent coaches and motivated players but still fail because leadership does not support the process through difficult periods.

Championship cultures survive adversity. When injuries mount, when losing streaks occur, when external criticism intensifies, the commitment to the process remains unchanged. The weight room standards stay the same. The nutrition expectations stay the same. The recovery protocols stay the same.

Mediocre cultures abandon the process when things get hard. Standards slip. Accountability disappears. Players start cutting corners because no one is watching. The erosion is gradual but inevitable.

I saw the difference between these cultures firsthand. In New England, adversity strengthened commitment. Players who experienced the championship environment refused to accept anything less. They held teammates accountable because they knew what was possible when everyone committed fully.

The training methods I learned in New England and applied in Los Angeles cannot be learned in lesser institutions, classrooms, or YouTube channels. These were real-world experiences under real competitive pressure with real consequences for failure. Sitting in rooms with Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, and Dante Scarnecchia taught me what championship standards actually look like. Watching Dean Lombardi, Luc Robitaille, and Ron Hextall build those same standards in hockey confirmed the principles are universal.

Practical Application for Athletes at Every Level

The principles that govern NFL training apply to athletes at every competitive level. High school players, college athletes, and recreational competitors all benefit from the same fundamentals.

Eat a balanced diet with 60% carbohydrates. Drink enough water that your urine runs nearly clear. Perform strength training with controlled rep speed, pausing in the contracted position and emphasizing the lowering phase. Condition the energy systems your sport actually uses. Get adequate sleep.

These principles are not complicated. They are difficult to follow consistently.

The organizations and individuals who build sustainable success embrace the difficulty. They create accountability systems. They track progress. They refuse to accept excuses.

Stadium Performance applies these same principles with athletes from high school through professional levels. The SP METHOD's eight components—Strength, Power, Mobility, Endurance, Timing, Health, Open Communication, and Deceleration—integrate the same fundamental truths that govern NFL preparation.

Our record of only ten ACL injuries across nearly 4,000 athletes over a decade demonstrates what happens when principles become culture. When athletes internalize proper training methods and apply them consistently, injuries decrease and performance improves.

The question is not whether these methods work. The research is clear. The question is whether you are willing to build the discipline to follow them—not for a workout, not for a week, not for a month, but for your entire athletic career.

Championship cultures are not accidents. They are built deliberately by people who understand what excellence requires and refuse to accept anything less.

Trust me. Trust our process.