Anyone who's met me, Cameron, for longer than 5 minutes, knows I'm a huge NFL fan and even played a spot of 'ball at University (go Sabres!). This weekend is Super Bowl weekend, the world's greatest sporting event (according to the Yanks) and so we look at at what the NFL can teach us about the modern warrior!
The Great Heathen Army wasn't made up of a single cookie-cutter type of warrior. The Vikings had their berserkers—furious and unrelenting shock troops—alongside their shield-bearers, archers, and Hersirs, the veteran strategists. Each had a role, each was crucial to the fight. A warband of only berserkers would fall quickly, just as one of only shield-bearers would be too slow and defensive to conquer.
The modern battlefield may look different, but the principle of specialised strength remains. Nowhere is this clearer than in the National Football League (NFL)—a sport where every position requires a different kind of warrior, forged by training, diet, and genetic potential.
The Shield Wall: The Linemen
In a Viking raid, the shield wall was the first and last line of defence, built by the strongest men who could hold the line under immense pressure. In the NFL, these warriors are the linemen—often tipping the scales at 140+ kg (300+ lbs), built not for speed, but for unyielding power and brute force. These men battle it out in the trenches to either get to the quaterback or protect him.
🔹 Strength Focus: Heavy squats, deadlifts, yoke carries
🔹 Key Attribute: Immovable endurance, explosive push strength
These men are fortresses in human form, just as a Viking shield wall held back the tides of enemies.
The Berserkers: Running Backs & Linebackers
The berserkers of the Viking age hurled themselves into the fray, fast and relentless, hacking down foes with untamed fury. Running backs and linebackers fill this role in the NFL—powerful, aggressive, combining brute force with speed.
🔹 Strength Focus: Power cleans, box jumps, heavy sled sprints
🔹 Key Attribute: Explosiveness, agility, aggression
They need to be strong enough to bulldoze enemies, fast enough to evade pursuit, and relentless enough to keep moving forward.
The Hunters: Wide Receivers & Defensive Backs
The Vikings didn’t just rely on brute strength—they had hunters, raiders, and archers, men built for speed, agility, and deadly precision. Wide receivers and defensive backs in the NFL are their modern equivalents—leaner, lightning-fast, and deadly over long distances.
🔹 Strength Focus: Sprints, plyometrics, agility ladder drills
🔹 Key Attribute: Reaction speed, endurance, precision movement
They are the archers of the team, striking with pinpoint accuracy at the perfect moment with impressive agility and inhuman vertical leaps.
The Strategists: Quarterbacks
A Viking Jarl did not rush blindly into battle. He commanded, he dictated, he made sure his warriors were positioned for maximum impact.
The quarterback is the Jarl of an NFL team. He sees the whole field, calculating every movement like a battle plan unfolding in real time. He needs a powerful arm, rapid decision-making skills, and the composure to stay calm in the chaos of finding the small opening between 21 men cutting about the field.
🔹 Strength Focus: Core stability, throwing mechanics, mental conditioning
🔹 Key Attribute: Leadership, intelligence, adaptability
Strength isn’t just physical—it’s mental. The best quarterbacks don’t just throw far; they read the battle and control the outcome.
Find Your Role in the Warband
What can we learn from all this? Sometimes it's easy to lose focus on our goals when we see others performing well, "comparison is the thief of joy." I know when I'm in a strength training cycle, completing mediocre runs compared to other's on Strava I sometimes get a sense that I'm not performing. This is bullsh*t. That is not my training focus, I am prioritising strength over all else.
We have our strengths and our weaknesses, both as a result of training, and genetically. Even 'hybrid athletes' can end up a jack of all trades but not truly a master of one and may be one of the most demoralising 'specialisms'. The truth is there is room for many types of warrior in the Warband, not just room, the Warband is more effective for it. Whether it's the bear of a man able to smash a gap in the shield wall, or the speedster able to cut through the woods to harry and harass the marching enemy.
So, it is important we remember what we're training for, and celebrate the success of others instead of feeling inadequate that we can't compete in all fields equally. Body composition is also a result of training focus. So, pick your lane, know who you are, embrace your role, for so long as you are training, YOU ARE A VIKING!!!
Skål! Enjoy the Super Bowl.
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