Without stretching New Orleans Saints T-Shirt , Chad Wheeler folds his 6-foot-7, 317-pound frame over far enough to place his palms flat on the ground. His knees are straight but not fully locked, because that's poor form, and he can comfortably hold himself there — he's that flexible.That's nothing for Wheeler. Like many NFL players, he does yoga."It's funny doing it as a team because a lot of guys haven't done it," Wheeler said. "It makes me feel proud in a way. Like guys that are way more athletic than me, I can bend better than them in certain positions."Football players don't fit the mold of a yogi , someone who regularly practices yoga. They're large athletes with sculpted muscles from countless hours of lifting and conditioning. Most do not look capable of the contortions required of the ancient discipline, such as standing on one foot with the other propped up on their knee in a tree pose for an extended period without falling over.Yet in recent years, the presence of yoga has grown in the NFL. The fast-paced, hard-hitting sport has accepted the more calming practice that emphasizes conscious breathing and body flow. Much like yin and yang, the two complement each other both mentally and physically."Obviously (yoga) helps with flexibility, what we call join integrity, discipline, focus and balance," said Los Angeles Chargers Director of Football/Medical Services James Collins, an NFL athletic trainer for 31 years. "It has a lot of different entities to it. And one thing about professional football players is that if you explain something to them and give them the science and reasoning behind it, you can get them to buy into it."Many teams haven't adopted yoga, but their players practice it individually, including Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, Buffalo Bills placekicker Steven Hauschka and New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.The Giants, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears offer it to their players on recovery days. Others make it a team activity: the Chargers, Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys."I was going into it expecting to tell them all the reasons why they should be practicing yoga and why it's so beneficial," said Kaleen Lugo, the Chargers' yoga instructor. "They're just like, 'You're preaching to the choir, girl. We know.'" PHYSICAL BENEFITSGetting ready in his pass-rush stance, New York Jets defensive lineman Leonard Williams has his legs spread, knees bent and feet staggered. He leans forward with a hand on the ground.That's how he stays until the ball is snapped New Orleans Saints Hats , holding his 6-5, 302-pound body in the three-point stance."For my position, you can get knocked off," Williams said. "When we're playing double teams, we got to stunt and do stuff, so it's like sometimes we have to be on one foot, plant and go somewhere. I feel like yoga helps with that, when we're doing one-legged poses and stuff like that. It helps with my balance ."Yoga helps with so much more than balance, and flexibility.Collins, who's also the Professional Football Athletic Trainers' Society president, said yoga is great for multidirectional joints such as the elbows, wrists, ankles, hips and shoulders. Regular stretching is linear and doesn't help strengthen those areas .Yoga also keeps muscles pliable and allows them to recover faster."At minimum, doing it helps maintain what you have," Collins said. "Especially as an athlete and a football player, as he's going through a season and his bodies getting beat up, everything starts to shut down — 'Boy, I feel stiff. I'm sore. I can't do this.' But if you're doing things throughout the season, like yoga, to help maintain what you've established with your body, that helps you get through the season, helps reduce your chance of injury and things of that nature."Each player — position, really — is different, too.Gwen Lawrence, founder of Power Yoga for Sport, has been teaching athlete-focused yoga for 25 years and taught the Giants for more than a decade under former head coach Tom Coughlin. While she would work on arm and spine strength — spinal rotation — for a quarterback, she would focus more on the neck, hips and wrists for a lineman.It comes down to releasing tension and building strength in overworked parts of the body."I didn't realize once I got the hold of it how much stronger I felt," Giants linebacker Jordan Williams said. "I wasn't doing anything but using my body weight New Orleans Saints Hoodie , and I felt so much stronger."MENTAL BENEFITS Bending to the side, Detroit Lions running back Ameer Abdullah reaches for a block on the floor . He then lifts his other legs straight out so he is parallel to the ground and extends his free arm upward.Each limb is stretched out straight, as he breathes through the difficulty of holding yoga's half-moon pose.That's where the mind-over-matter mentality comes in."They need to be trained when they're in a tough situation, they can't just bail," Lawrence said. "A lot of times they'll be like, 'Ah, this is too hard. This hurts,' and they'll jump out of that. You can't do that in a game, and you can't do that in yoga."Mental toughness is one of the six facets Lawrence teaches in her yoga class, along with strength, flexibility, balance, focus and breath. But she also has a six-week mindfulness course Coughlin had the medical staff and players go through. The well-being of the mind is just as important as the well-being of body."We spend a lot of time paying attention to the psychology of the athlete," said National Athletic Trainers' Association president Tory Lindley, who's also the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Health, Safety and Performance and Director of Athletic Training Services at Northwestern University. "That mind-body connection is critical."On the field and off it.In 2003, Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Keith Mitchell sustained a career-ending injury . It came after seven years in the NFL, mostly spent with the Saints. He was lost, saying he showed signed of depression and had suicidal thoughts, until he found yoga.Mitchell credits meditation and conscious breathing for getting him through the tough time. Now, he's a yoga instructor and hopes the practice grows in the NFL because he wishes he had done it as a player."The game, I always say, is 80 percent mental," Mitchell said. "So anything we can do to reboot the mind — I call it a meditation and I teach it as a mind practice — that's just going to make you even more impactful, more effective on your endeavors."Many players do it for the mental aspect alone, saying yoga gets their mind right and prevents overthinking. It forces them to be in the moment, otherwise there's no way they'd be able to accomplish some of the poses, which make them feel better physically.One thing leads to another, much like the flow of a good sun salutation — moving from one pose to another."When you feel good, you play good Youth Customized New Orleans Saints Jerseys ," Lugo said. "When you play good, it's all good. They know that comes from so much more than just keeping your body in peak shape and condition." On the day he became the NFL's career leader in completed passes, Drew Brees' biggest plays came as a runner.Brees' 1-yard run capped an 80-yard touchdown drive to open overtime that lifted the New Orleans Saints to a 43-37 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.That came after his 7-yard score late in the fourth quarter forced the overtime. After the Saints won the coin toss, Brees and the Saints held the ball for more than seven minutes.Brees jumped over the pile on a quarterback keeper after his apparent 3-yard TD pass to Alvin Kamara was overturned. A review determined Kamara's knee was down before he crossed the goal line. Brees scored on the following play, giving the Saints (2-1) the win."This was a wild one," said Brees, who passed for 396 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two scores. Kamara had 15 catches for 124 yards and ran for 66 yards.Brees' biggest play before the winner might have been his improbable 7-yard scoring run with 1:15 remaining that forced overtime. He ran to his left and then spun to avoid tackle attempts by Brian Poole and Robert Alford."At some point, I felt they were coming to take my head off and I could probably spin out of it," Brees said, adding he now has film evidence to show the youth flag football team he coaches that "spin moves work. Spin moves are good."With his 14th completed pass, the 39-year-old Brees broke the record of 6,300 career completions set by Hall of Famer Brett Favre. Brees set the mark with a 17-yard pass to Michael Thomas in the second quarter."I'm just very grateful," Brees said. "I hope there's a lot more coming. I just think about all the people who have had a hand in that. A lot of hands have caught a lot of passes. ... They are all a part of this."Atlanta's Matt Ryan had his first career game with five scoring passes. Calvin Ridley became the first Atlanta rookie with three scoring catches. That wasn't enough for the Falcons (1-2) against Brees and the high-scoring Saints, who gained 534 yards.Ryan bemoaned a lost opportunity when the Falcons were forced to punt when stopped at the Atlanta 44 with 25 seconds remaining in overtime."We had chances to finish the game today and we didn't do that," Ryan said. "That's disappointing."Saints coach Sean Payton called the defensive stop "a huge part of the win."Ryan passed for 374 yards, including 146 to Ridley, who had seven receptions, including a 75-yard TD.Ridley's third scoring catch against the Saints was a 9-yarder early in the third quarter that held up following a review.Ryan's five touchdown passes tied the team record set by Wade Wilson on Dec. 13, 1992, at Tampa Bay.The fifth scoring pass to Mohamed Sanu came after Saints defensive tackle David Onyemata was called for unnecessary roughness on Matt Bryant's 29-yard field goal. With the penalty, the Falcons' offense came back on the field.Ridley beat P.J. Williams on his first two scoring catches, an 18-yarder in the first quarter and the 75-yarder in the second quarter.The Saints made a defensive switch, moving Ken Crawley into coverage on Ridley. Crawley was called for pass interference on a deep incompletion to Ridley early in the third quarter that gave Atlanta a first down at the New Orleans 5. On second down from the 9, Ridley's third scoring catch gave the Falcons a 21-16 lead.Brees completed his first four passes, including a 19-yard scoring pass to Ted Ginn Jr. on the Saints' opening drive.INJURY REPORTSaints reserve cornerback Patrick Robinson was carted from the field early in the third quarter with a left ankle injury. He did not return.Falcons safety Ricardo Allen left early in overtime with a left calf injury. He was helped to the sideline and then driven on a cart to the locker room. ... Reserve cornerback Justin Bethel injured a knee in the third quarter. ... Atlanta rookie linebacker Foyesade Oluokun left in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury.THOMAS THRIVINGThomas had 10 catches for 129 yards. His 38 catches are the most by an NFL player in his team's first three games to start a season. His 28 catches through two games also were a record.PASSING MONTANARyan's 75-yard scoring pass to Ridley was his 34th career TD pass against the Saints, the most by any quarterback. He surpassed Joe Montana's 33 TD passes against New Orleans. Ryan added three more, leaving his total at 37.DROPS FOR GINNGinn dropped a sideline pass on a second-quarter drive that ended with a 49-yard field goal by Will Lutz bouncing off the left upright and over the cross bar. Later in the quarter, Ginn juggled a pass for an incompletion as he ran out of bounds on the Atlanta sideline. He finished with three catches for 12 yards.UP NEXTSaints: at New York Giants next Sunday.Falcons: Play their third straight home game against the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday.