"If something happened, he'd win a lawsuit because I should know he's not supposed to be out here," Joseph said.
Paul said he now weighed 115kg and avoided fried food, eating primarily baked chicken and fish.
"I feel much better," he said. "I feel I can move."
Desire Street's starting linemen are about 190cm tall and appear to handle their weight nimbly. Still, Joseph said he had required the starting guard Nick Chartain to slim down from 153kg to 140kg.
"I'd play three plays and be out of breath," said the 187cm Chartain, a senior. After watching his diet and trying not to eat after 6pm, Chartain said, "I can breathe better now. I'm in shape."
PRESSURE TO BE BIG
When Desire Street played yesterday, its opponent, South Plaquemines High, fielded a 150kg freshman nose tackle named Jeffery Espadron. If college recruiters eventually become interested in him, Espadron said, "They're going to notice me because of my size."
He has dropped 4kg and may want to reduce his weight to 142kg, but not to less than 130kg, Espadron said, because "that is too small for a D-lineman. Most linemen I see in the NFL are 290 [130kg] or 300 [135kg]."
High blood pressure and high cholesterol run in the family, Denise Espadron, a nurse and Jeffrey's mother, said. Her husband had recently lost 13kg as the family tried to avoid white rice, white bread, potatoes and sugary drinks, she said, but added, "We love our Popeye's down here. As for fried seafood, I think it's a curse on people in Plaquemines Parish."
Weight limits at all levels of football should be seriously considered, beginning with the NFL, Alexander of the National Institutes of Health said. "Some people would say that's a restraint of trade," he said. "But when you look at the impact these players have on other players and kids, I think there is some contribution, unmeasurable, to the overall problem of obesity in the United States."
Carl Francis, a spokesman for the NFL Players Association, said there was no movement to institute weight restrictions. Bob Colgate, the assistant director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, said the issue of obesity in football was being considered but that further study was needed before any recommendations could be made. One concern is whether weight restrictions would be considered discriminatory.
"They're not doubting the health concerns," Colgate said of high school officials. "But to set a limit on how much players can weigh, they don't want to go down that road until they have research and data to support anything that might be considered."
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