Agility ladders are common on a football practice field. They are placed on the ground, and the players — primarily running backs and receivers but even linemen on occasion — run through them to improve footwork and quickness.
The ladder is unusual for a backyard.
Especially one used by a 6-year-old.
Yet that’s exactly what Browns rookie left tackle Spencer Fano attributes his nimble feet to, particularly for a man who stands 6-foot-6, 315 pounds.
“It comes from just training ever since I was a kid,” he told The Chronicle-Telegram recently. “My dad would take me, my brothers and my sister, and we would just do the little foot ladders. I want to say I started doing the foot ladder since I was like 6.
“We always had to do the foot ladder before we ever did anything like hung out with friends or played video games. Dad would come home, he would check in with my mom, make sure we did it.”
Browns OL work on their footwork this week. pic.twitter.com/KiQtU72g5T
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Fano’s father, Bingham, played quarterback and safety at Snow College in Utah.
“He was an athlete and he kind of saw the potential in us since we were little kids and that grew into how me and my siblings are today,” Fano said.
The ladder regimen lasted 30 minutes a day. Bingham didn’t design it for fun.
“Riding us hard, for sure,” Fano said. “It was a very strict thing and made sure we had it done and if we didn’t get it done, then, yeah, there was no play with your friends.”
Resentment followed.
“Of course. I mean, I was a kid,” Fano said. “As a kid, that’s not something you want to do. You want to go hang out with your friends, you want to play video games, you want to play with toys, all the stuff.
“But looking back on it today, I feel like that’s an amazing thing that my dad did. I obviously would not be the same kind of athlete or player today if I didn’t do those things.”
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He and brother Logan, an undrafted rookie defensive end who’s on Cleveland’s practice squad, would get an occasional respite from their mom.
“There was sometimes where me and Logan would make a deal with my mom and then she lied to my dad, say we did it when he came home from work,” Fano said.
Bingham got his MBA at Harvard and manages mobile homes.
“Pretty freaking cool,” Fano said of the advanced degree.
Fano wasn’t a lineman until high school in Utah. He spent his youth as a power running back.
“I was maybe 2 ounces under the weight limit every time,” he said. “Every time.”
Fano flashes his bright smile routinely and generally carries a sunny disposition. That changes when he’s on the field, as was obvious when he wrestled with defensive end Jared Verse during a training camp fight.
He isn’t sure where the ability to switch personalities comes from but has a theory.
“I feel like just as a kid, I started playing football in kindergarten and I didn’t know what I was doing out there, but they just told me to go hit somebody,” he said. “So I feel like, I don’t know, ever since then, it’s been really easy for me to go hit somebody.”
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And he enjoys that?
“Yes, sir,” he said.
The fight with Verse, a two-time Pro Bowler, proved something to Fano’s coaches and teammates
“That boy got heart,” Verse said. “A lot of rookies that were going through a situation against me, against top edges in the league, kind of back down, kind of be a little nervous, a little bit timid. But, no, he’s never shown that.”
Verse is a constant irritant to Fano and the rest of the offense. He’s nonstop trash talk and movement.
“There’s some very explicit things that I don’t think we could put on the record,” Fano said. “Which has driven me to say some explicit things back.”
The ladder work, background at running back and nasty streak were the foundation for him to eventually play left tackle in the NFL. The Browns took him at No. 9 after trading down from No. 6 and immediately installed him on the quarterback’s blindside after playing mostly right tackle throughout his career.
“It’s not an easy task, especially on the fly,” veteran right tackle Tytus Howard said. “I feel like he’s doing a tremendous job of owning the small details of the technique every day.
“He’s really athletic. And that’s something you can’t teach, that’s a God-given talent. It’s helped him out a lot since he’s been here.”
Coach Todd Monken has seen Fano’s overall skill set improve.
“He always had the athleticism piece of it, but I think where he’s really evolved is his upper body working with his lower body in terms of his movement and his punch and not getting overextended,” he said. “Jared going against him every day has helped with that. But I think just the coordination of it all, and I think it’s only going to continue to get better.”
Fano’s first major test will come Sept. 13 in the opener against the Jaguars and edge rushers Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker.
“I’m ready,” Fano said. “I know it’s going to be a challenge and I’m ready to take that head on.”
He isn’t sure what to expect, besides nerves.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” he said. “I know I’m going to have my moments, but I’m going to try to cut down on those as much as possible and put together a game.
“I get nervous before everything, before practices. I get nervous before I talk to media. Coach Monken said if you get those nerves it’s because you care. So that’s how I feel about it.”
When Fano wasn’t at the team facility or sleeping during the long grind of camp, he hung out with new wife Sami.
“Every hour that I’m not here, I’m with her,” he said. “I do my hobbies with her, which makes it awesome. I’ll be sitting there building Legos and we’ll be watching a movie together and that type of stuff.”
They’ve been married for two months and are settling into their new city.
“I’ve loved it so much,” he said. “We’ve been talking about it every day, how this really does feel like home to us now. So it’s been amazing.”
He gets recognized “all the time” and embraces the attention.
“It’s so cool,” he said. “It’s such a blessed position to be in. And then all the fans, everybody’s so kind. They come in and they’re not rude about it. Everybody’s awesome, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
