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FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys' offseason program starts April 15, but Travis Frederick will be at The Star probably a month or so before that, working out. It will have little to do with his comeback from Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), an auto-immune disease that affects the nervous system, and everything to do with Frederick's normal preparation for a season. The past seven months have been anything but normal for Frederick. The disease robbed him of the 2018 season, the first games he had ever missed with the Cowboys. It robbed him of his strength that made him a four-time Pro Bowler and one of the best centers in the NFL. At times, it robbed him of his balance and stamina. It never robbed him of his spirit. "Once I got to the point where I knew that there was a positive prognosis, it was all about getting back," Frederick said. "It was never about, 'How did I get here?'" Frederick feels almost all the way back, but says he won't know for sure until he is on the field again with his teammates. When pressed, he said he was about 90-95 percent, but he still has to regain strength in his lower body. But the nerves, which were essentially eaten away, are firing properly. "The connection is there," Frederick said. "Now we're just speeding up the connection. That's the last part of the healing process." What can Frederick do now that he couldn't do during the season? "Walk regularly and lift," he said. The low point came near midseason when he knew there was no chance he could play. He had difficulty just walking. "It got to the point where I was trying so hard and doing so much to try and get myself back, I was actually making my body not recover the way that it needed to," Frederick said. "What had happened is your recovery time slows down the same way that your strength loses. So instead of your body taking two or three days to recover, it was taking four or five, so by me lifting a particular muscle group a couple of times a week, I was never letting my body recover and I was digging myself a deep hole. That wasn't affecting my nerve regeneration. It was affecting the way I was able to move and how I was able to get around in my daily life." Slowly, he got better. By the end of the season, he felt like he could have played a snap or two, but he was not in football shape. Plus, he was on injured reserve. The numbness in his arms and legs had dissipated. Even though he could not play, he remained engaged with the team -- attending every practice and meeting. He became a de facto assistant offensive line coach to Marc Colombo, wearing an ear piece during games to get the calls. "I wanted to be able to help my team in any way I could. Obviously I can't be out there and can't physically be helping them, but being able to lend some experience and lend another eye, especially through a coaching transition and all the different things that we dealt with this year, I think that that made me feel like I was doing something to help," Frederick said. "And then, selfishly, I don't know exactly what I'd be doing had I stepped away for a full year. "People retire and then you move on and do something else, but when you step away for a whole year and you're just working out, I don't know what I would do to fill that time. Obviously I'd get to spend a little bit more time with the family, but it would be different. I wanted to make sure I stayed connected and putting myself in the right positions so that when I come back I'll be at the same mental sharpness that I've had." Frederick said he grew to appreciate the game more and what he had done in becoming a first-round pick, starting every game he ever played and making the Pro Bowl from 2014 to 2017. "It also made me realize that I'm OK with myself and what I've done on the field and accomplished," he said, "and if everything was terrible and it ended up that I was never going to play again, I feel confident and I feel proud about what I put on the field and what I put on film." Now the goal is to be the player he was before GBS, not just to return. He is running but not full sprinting yet. His lifting is at about 90 percent of the highest total he has ever lifted and he is confident the explosion will return fully to his lower body. He has been at The Star intermittently in the offseason, but will be a near-daily visitor for what the players term the "captains' workouts" before the offseason program begins. He is not sure he will be allowed to do everything, just as every injured player works back in slowly. "There's so many steps that are involved that it's hard to really look at that at May or April what it is. I'm excited for the next time that I get to get in the weight room and see where I'm at, and then I'm excited for March to get going with everybody around and I can feel a part of that group again," Frederick said. "And then I'm excited to put the helmet on and go out there and do some football movement again. It really is a buildup and I'm just looking forward to that whole process."
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