MINNEAPOLIS -- He entered the league with some degree of fanfare, a product of the curiosity created on his path from Germany straight to the NFL. But eventually it dissipated, and Moritz Bohringer was left with this: the often-lonely existence of an NFL practice-squad player, made more desolate by the fact that he was an ocean away from home, undergoing a football crash course conducted in his second language.
Bohringer walked to practice during the preseason, waiting until the start of the regular season to purchase a car. He absorbed as much as he could in the Minnesota Vikings' position meetings, even as they surpassed many times over, in length and density, anything he'd experienced in Germany. And he often sat quietly at his stall in the Vikings' locker room, around the corner from fellow practice-squad member Isaac Fruechte but removed from the team's receivers who had spots on the active roster.
The 23-year-old's dream of playing in the NFL -- first sparked by an Adrian Peterson highlight video he saw back home -- remains as strong as ever, though, and Bohringer said he would not trade his year on the Vikings' practice squad.
"It's hard to describe it," he said at his locker last week. "It's long, definitely, but I learned so much. I never could have learned that much in Germany, or anywhere else."
When Bohringer played in the German Football League, his coach uploaded weekly game film to an online platform and expected players to watch it on their own. "He just wrote comments on the film," Bohringer said. "We didn't have hardly any meetings."
He has learned now, though, that the tedium of NFL life involves more time in classrooms and individual study than on the practice field. He has a deeper understanding of the precision NFL receivers must have in their route running, to separate from defensive backs and stay in sync with their quarterback. And even though he has been away from family, save for a visit from his sister while she spent a semester studying in California, he has grown comfortable with life in America.
Bohringer said he plans to stay in Minnesota for the offseason, possibly working out at the gym Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen opened last summer. The culture, he said, isn't all that different from Germany. And when he finally bought a car, Bohringer splurged on one that wouldn't have worked back home.
"Chevy Silverado," he said as he cracked a smile. "I had to get it, because you can't drive it in Germany. It would take way too much fuel. I don't think anyone has a truck in Germany."
The cars are bigger here but so are the roads, Bohringer said. In 2017, perhaps his NFL prospects will be, too.
