DIY Network

Road Trip: Cincinnati Bengals' Locker Room Road Trip: Cincinnati Bengals' Locker Room From "Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean" episode DQOC-111

You can expect anyone who plays a sport to get sweaty and dirty, especially football players who spend a lot of time in mud and dirt. A pro football team generates huge amounts of laundry; for a closer look at managing such a task, we're paying a visit to the locker room of the Cincinnati Bengals.

advertisement

When the Bengals take to the field on game day at Paul Brown Stadium, they're dressed in their Sunday best. But it's the laundry team that gets to work after the last play is called: tackling all the spots that end up on the black and orange stripes of the uniforms. Sorting, washing, drying and distributing laundry are aspects of professional football that fans never see, but organized systems allow the laundry team to accomplish the tasks without penalties or overtime.

• Game uniforms are put into specially designed washing machines complete with a soak cycle that lasts for eight hours. The machines then repeat the wash / rinse cycle four times until the clothes are clean and stain free.
  

  	Figure A
  	Figure B
  	Figure C

• During the summer months two full-time assistants, two part-time assistants and three industrial-sized washers and dryers maintain 400 to 600 pounds of uniforms, workout clothes and towels every day (figure A). In the winter they clean an average of 900 pounds of clothes daily.

• To keep player' 'clothing together and make it easier to distribute, each player has a laundry cord hanging in his locker (figure B). Dirty clothes are attached to the cord, and socks go into small mesh bags hanging on the cords. The cords are preferred to large mesh laundry bags because the clothes wash better and dry more quickly.

• When team clothing is being purchased, the buyers give careful thought to the fabrics. Socks are a poly-cotton blend because the fibers are fast-drying.

• Everything assigned to a player has his number on it; if something gets loose in the wash, it can be quickly returned to the correct locker. Even towels are numbered to match each player's number (figure C).

• Helmets are scrubbed with mild detergent.

• Shoulder pads are scrubbed as needed and sprayed to keep down odors.

• After an away game the team is usually out of the locker room in an hour. Dirty laundry is placed into special bins before being loaded into the plane for the trip home.