“I don’t want to get any higher than [154kg],” said Bengals 11-year veteran guard Bobbie Williams. “As you get older, you don’t want to get the weight on you. You want to be able to move and keep up. You don’t want to feel burdened down by your weight.”
NEARING OBESITY
The heights and weights listed on rosters show, 97 percent of 2,168 NFL players had body-mass indexes (a formula that considers weight and height) of 25 or greater, which is considered the threshold for the “overweight” category.
The index is often considered an unfair gauge for NFL players because they lift weights extensively and have naturally large frames. Still, it is notable that 56 percent have indexes of more than 30, which is the threshold for obesity, and 26 percent are at 35 or greater.
It is a recipe for problems, whether in the midst of a career or after, in a sport that beats up players like no other.
“Your joints are going to be aching,” said Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Max Starks, who by almost every account, carries his 157kgs quite well. “Your joints aren’t going to be able to take all that pressure because they’ve been taking all that abuse from playing the sport, because it is barbaric at times, it’s a grueling sport and you’re going to have injuries.”
There is no sign of things lightening in the university ranks.
Macedonio cited another study that showed a sampling of university offensive lineman averaged 27.4 percent body fat — the healthy range is 8 percent to 19 percent — and that 69 of 70 players already had at least one condition — high blood pressure, waist circumference of 102 centimeters or greater — that predicted they would be susceptible to heart disease later in life.
“There’s no question there are some health risks,” said Dan Wathen, longtime athletic trainer at Youngstown State University who remembers the day when a 112kg player was considered huge. “It’s manageable when they’re playing. It’s greater when their playing days are over. If they continue with the same caloric consumption, the health risk is going to go up significantly at that point.”
Most of the big players see that day coming. They hear news about Perry — who has been battling a nerve disorder, his weight bouncing between the 160kg to 90kg at one point, then back up again. And about Newton, who recently had a gastric sleeve put on to shrink the size of his stomach and now bops around at a svelte 112 kg.
“I keep making a joke around here, I say, ‘I’m getting a surgery,’” said Miami Dolphins tackle Vernon Carey, whose weight goes from 152kg in season to 162kg out of season, talking about his retirement plans.
A notorious victim of fines for being overweight when he played for Jimmy Johnson and the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, Newton says the biggest he ever got was 186kg. He was at an unhealthy 178kg as recently as April. Since the surgery, his waist size has gone from 142cm to 102cm.
Despite the progress, he is still faced with issues most 48-year-old men do not face until later in life.
“I didn’t want to die because of fat-related or because I got diabetes or I got high blood pressure,” Newton said. “I don’t want a heart attack because I’m [more than 180kg]. If I die, let it be something else, not something I can do something about.”
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