Season 2 of The Titan Games is here, and there will be one big difference from the first season. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the host of The Titan Games, decided to take the competition up another level with the addition of six Celebrity Titans, including former NFL stars Victor Cruz and Joe Thomas. PopCulture.com had a chance to speak to Cruz and Thomas about their experience on the NBC show and revealed what they went through is just as challenging as the work they put in on the football field.
“Clearly I wasn’t ready at all during my workout regimen,” Cruz, who played seven seasons with the New York Giants, said to PopCulture. “I was completely unprepared for Mount Olympus and everything that embodies Mount Olympus. I do try to work out and stay in shape and do the same type of workouts I would do as an athlete training for a football game.” Mount Olympus is a multi-obstacle challenge that tests an athlete’s strength, speed, agility, and stamina. It is so challenging, Curz revealed, “I would rather play two football games back to back than do Mount Olympus.”
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As for Thomas, he explained what makes Mount Olympus difficult. “The Mount Olympus challenges are three and a half minutes long, and a football game is three and a half hours,” Thomas said, who spent his entire career with the Cleveland Browns. “In that three-and-a-half minutes, you’re exerting yourself at the same level as you did in over three and a half hours of the NFL. You’re literally giving everything you have in your entire body in three and a half minutes. Whereas in a three and a half-hour football game, it’s 60 plays of five seconds. It’s spreading it out. You’re giving six seconds as hard as you can, but then you rest for 45 seconds.”
The other four Celebrity Titans are former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley, boxing champion Claressa Shields, stuntwoman Jessie Graff and snowboarder Hannah Teter. Graff competed in American Ninja Warrior and revealed the most significant difference in competing in The Titan Games.
“So here is kind of you having to attack all these obstacles with decreasing amounts of energy. You’re not going to fall off of it and immediately be out,” Graff said, adding that she had stem cell injections on her neck and shoulder before The Titan Games. “You’re going to be there and keep fighting with whatever obstacle is. Getting to be in a position I can’t breathe, I can barely stand but I have to keep pulling a giant boulder it’s a really cool experience.”
Cruz, Thomas, Graff, and the rest of the Celebrity Titans are battling for $100,000 with the 36 Titans who are everyday people. If one of the pro athletes win the grand prize, the money will be donated to a charity of their choice. Despite being in the spotlight before, the celebrity Titans still had to get themselves ready for a different type of competition.
“It was a little intimidating. but as you’re going through it, you’re like okay I feel like I can do this,” Curz said. “When it’s live and all the bells and whistles are real, it’s a little bit different. Your adrenaline is pumping; you got the full crowd out there. It was definitely a different animal when it’s live.”
