Joseph Fauria, 6'7 tight end for the Detroit Lions, worked on developing his hands by catching bricks.

"I've always worked on that," said Fauria about developing his hands. "I used to catch bricks with my grandfather outside my front yard and back yard, and that taught you soft hands and how to bring it in and how not to fight the ball. I also have done the thing where you turn around and catch the ball. I got a few black eyes growing up, because I wasn't fast enough, or he threw it too damn early."

Jerry Rice famously was the son of a brick mason and would catch bricks from his brothers to hand to his dad with any dropped brick being deducted from his paycheck.

"Exactly. And my uncles did it too. Brick laying. My summer job was waiting on tables, but their summer jobs were brick laying. That's how they got good hands. Christian, my uncle (and a longtime NFL tight end), was too I think.

"My uncle also used to go across the street, and he honestly had a tighter spiral than Warren Moon. He's a doctor now, but he used to go across the street and just sling it. I'm like, 'Dude, can you stop? My hands are red.' I was, like, a pre-teen, like 9 or 10 years old, and I can't catch that stuff. It was an NFL ball too. He'd just gun it at me. I'd gone inside and start crying. He'd be like, 'Get back out here! Get back out here!'

"That's how I learned soft hands. Tough love."