Panthers Tracks: Why Brian Burns’ offseason, late-night routine is familiar to many
On first glance, Brian Burns and I have nothing in common.
He’s a 6-foot-5, 250-pound exceptional athlete who terrorizes NFL quarterbacks and offensive linemen. I’m a 5-foot-6 (on good days), 120-pound average athlete who doesn’t scare much other than the occasional jumpy squirrel.
But there is one thing neither of us have: normal sleep schedules. Burns often sleeps around 3 a.m. and wakes up after noon in the offseason, he said Thursday.
“I’m not even out, I’m in the house just up,” he said.
Is he playing video games?
“Nah, I’m just up.” His late-night forays do include video games, but he also finds himself spending time with his dogs or watching television.
As a night owl, I get it. Even if you know it’s bad to stay up that late, it’s easy to let the night get away from you. Before my internship started, many of my summer nights ended with me up at 2 a.m., groaning about how tired I’d be the next day.
Shaq Thompson urged Burns to take more of a leadership role, and the defensive end responded by showing the younger players how to approach being in the NFL. That means waking up at 6 a.m. and setting five alarms to do so.
For me, waking up at 8 a.m. involves six different alarms —7:45, 7:50 and 7:55 to prime myself to wake up. 8:00 to actually get out of bed. 8:10 as a safeguard and 8:30 as a last resort to avoid embarrassment.
Burns has a set plan he wants to accomplish after waking up. He plays lo-fi music, does his skin-care routine (we love to see it), takes a cold shower to wake up his nervous system and then kicks off his day with a workout. Waking up early feels better for the 24-year-old.
“I feel like I got a lot more day ... starting late ain’t where it’s at,” he said.
I get it Brian, I really do. As someone who’s intentionally taking a 9 a.m. class in the fall to force myself to get out of bed, I applaud his efforts and hope the two of us start sleeping and waking up at more reasonable times.
- Varun Shankar
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This story was originally published July 29, 2022 at 5:47 AM with the headline "Panthers Tracks: Why Brian Burns’ offseason, late-night routine is familiar to many."
