Simon's strength has long been stuff of legend

FOXBORO — John Simon was in elementary school when the field trips with his father started. The destination didn't seem like anything special — a local gym in Youngstown, Ohio — but it was everything for these two.

When most kids are in elementary school, workouts usually include recreational activities. When Simon was a boy, his workouts were much more than playing tag or hopscotch. At this point, Simon had never lifted a weight, but he wasn’t new to working out.

“I started in kindergarten because I was a wrestler,” Simon said. “Pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups was kind of the thing. That was all to build a foundation.”

His father, John Simon III, started bringing him to the gym to give his mother a reprieve at home. At first, he’d sit at a table and play with action figures while his dad, a passionate weightlifter, went through his routine. It didn’t take Simon long before he started bugging him. Day and night, he asked if he could lift with him. Finally, he was given the green light.

Simon was in fourth grade. His favorite lift was the bench press.

“I started on a lifting routine in fourth grade. It was something I always wanted to do,” Simon said. “My dad was very educated in what he was doing. He drew something up for me. I just fell in love with it. Til this day, it’s a stress reliever for me and something I enjoy.”

That’s when the legend started.

By the time Simon was in middle school, he was lifting five times a week. Simon and his dad even constructed their own gym inside their Youngstown home. Then high school came and people started talking.

Big Foot might not be real, but John Simon’s legendary workout stories were true — well, most of them. Now with the Patriots, Simon’s legend holds form in the weight room.

“It’s a part of his DNA,” said Nate Ebner, who went to college with Simon. “It’s not like one of those things you do throughout the day because you have to do it. It’s something he needs to do. It’s just part of him… He’s a beast, man. He’s strong as hell.”

The legend grew

People started talking about Simon’s weight-room adventures locally when he was a junior at Cardinal Mooney. When he was 16, he could bench 225 pounds 31 times.

By the time he committed to Ohio State, his workout stories became legendary in and out of the Ohio area. At the time, his high school program was so successful that the team would travel out of state for different competition. During Simon’s senior season, the Cardinals played in places like Park Hills, Kentucky, and Athol Springs, N.Y.

That year, Simon could bench press 450 pounds and squat 700 pounds. Everywhere they went, people wanted to know — is it true about John Simon?

“When we would show up places, it was a circus… That word just got out and got out,” said Simon’s high school P.J. Fecko. “Those stories started to grow and grow. In some of the places we would go, we’d chuckle to ourselves because it was like a folktale with what he could lift and do this and this. ‘And he eats peanut butter, but here he does this.’ It was crazy.”

It wasn't long before Simon’s stories grew larger than life. Corey Linsley, who grew up in Youngstown, but went to a different school, remembers the tales well.

“Everybody in the county knew who he was. It was basically because of his ridiculous numbers,” said Linsley, who played with Simon in college and is on the Green Bay Packers. “They always got exaggerated. The actually numbers he put up in the weight room were still out of this world, but people would be saying he squatted 1,000 pounds.”

In the weight room, Simon’s favorite lift became the squat, which he says is the most beneficial for football players. On the football field, his knowledge of the game made him a complete player. Not only was he strong, but he used proper techniques and fundamentals.

Simon could toss aside offensive linemen with his strength, but he was so savvy, he didn’t necessarily need to rely on that strength.

“I’d seen over the time, sometimes with guys who were big and strong didn’t use the proper techniques because they think they could overpower everyone,” Fecko said. “That’s what made John so devastating and successful.”

No stopping him

Before Mickey Marotti took over as the Ohio State football program's strength coach under Urban Myer, he arrived on campus a month early. At this point, the team was getting ready for the Gator Bowl and the new staff wouldn’t take over until after that game.

As Marotti was walking around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, he heard noises coming from the 8,000-square foot weight room.

“I’m walking around and I open the door and this dude in there and players in there lifting weights,” Mariotti said. “I’m like, ‘what are you doing?’ He’s like, ‘I’m lifting weights.’ I go, ‘how’d you get in here?’ He goes, ‘I just pulled this door.’ I go, ‘what do you mean?’

“Basically, he broke in. Again, I wasn’t [officially] there yet, so, that was my first time I met John. He actually broke into the weight room.”

Linsley was one of the players in there with Simon at the time.

“John actually showed me how to break in to the weight room,” Linsley said. “He was actually mad at me because I got caught breaking in. Mickey had to put a bolt on the door. John then found another way, a back way, so he could get his Saturday-Sunday lift on.”

Simon’s legendary status in the weight room grew at Ohio State.

At Ohio State, football players are required to lift four times a week with off days on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Simon would wake up at 4:30 a.m. and lift at 6:30 a.m., but he craved more. That’s when he started lifting on Wednesday. Then he was going in on Saturday. Then he asked if he could lift on Sunday, too, working out seven days a week in the offseason.

“He was one of the top three athletes I’ve ever trained,” Marotti said. “The way his mind works is different… He’s what we call a meathead.”

“John, probably his home could be in a weight room,” Linsley added. “He’s the hardest working guy. He’s the type of guy that if you do 10 sets, he’s going to do 11 just to piss you off. He’s strong as all get out.”

'Strong as an ox'

Over the years, Simon has perfected his workout routine. He doesn’t rely on a personal trainer since he is his own personal trainer. His routine is still legendary.

The 28-year-old defensive end wakes up early every morning and comes to Gillette Stadium to get a lift in. He still doesn’t take a day off.

“I come in six days a week. I come in first thing in the morning. I come in early,” Simon said. “I get my workout in the first thing in the morning. I’ll go Monday through Saturday and Sunday obviously I’ve got more important things to do. It just helps wake me up, get my mind right for these meetings and things like that. It sparks your brain and gets you active and acclimated to the day and makes sure I’m ready to go.”

Simon doesn’t just alternate between upper body and lower body. Instead, he lifts like a bodybuilder, focusing on a different body part every day. He no longer squats 700 pounds, instead working to maintain strength through the season.

In the NFL, Simon’s legend endures. In his first two years in the league, in Baltimore, he was teammates with Patriots linebacker Albert McClellan, who found out the stories were true.

“Oh, he’s strong. He’s as strong as an ox,” said McClellan. “He’s a different kind of strong. He loves the weight room. He can lift the whole house if he wanted to.”

Simon’s the type of guy that got a lift in with his groomsmen and his father the morning of his wedding. Anytime he goes home, he and his dad will work out at 5 a.m. In 2017, his wife posted a photo of Instagram with Simon and their baby son. The caption read that they might not have a mattress, window blinds, kitchen table or a working refrigerator, but they had a squat rack.

You wouldn’t expect anything less.