CURRENT FEATURE: 

Putting on Weight for Football Glory

By JERÉ LONGMAN

Published: November 30, 2007 

• "High school football rosters reveal weight issues that go beyond the nation’s overall increase in obesity rates among children. Two studies, one published in The Journal of the American Medical Association and another in The Journal of Pediatrics, found that weight problems among high school football players — especially linemen — far outpaced those of other male children and adolescents." -- Jere Longman

• "...coaches and researchers fear that some young athletes may be endangering their health in an effort to reach massive proportions and attract the attention of college recruiters."  -- Jere Longman
  

• A study of more than 3,600 high school linemen in Iowa, published in January in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 45 percent were overweight and 9 percent were classified with severe adult obesity. This compares with 18 percent of male children and adolescents who are overweight.

• Another study of 650 football players in Michigan youth leagues from ages 9 to 14, published in October  2007 in The Journal of Pediatrics, found that 45 percent were overweight or obese, with the problem more prevalent among linemen, who are typically the biggest players on the team. 
  

• "High school football players are participating in a sport that is becoming increasingly businesslike and pressure-filled, even though only 6 percent of (High School) seniors go on to play in college."  - Robert M. Malina, a professor emeritus of kinesiology at Texas and the lead author of the Michigan study.

• "For those who want to gain weight, legal dietary supplements are readily available and largely unregulated. Also, high school athletes who choose to use banned performance-enhancing drugs are unlikely to be caught; only three states have drug-testing programs, and they are not considered rigorous." -- Jere Longman
  

• By the summer of 2005 more than 600 (NFL) players weighing 295 pounds and above were listed on training camp rosters.

• A 2003 study by the University of North Carolina said that 56 percent of N.F.L. players were considered obese. N.F.L. linemen have a 52 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than the general public, and are 3.7 times more likely to die of heart disease than other players, according to a 1994 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

• "A similar kind of “fat race” is occurring among high school linemen, leaving them at risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, diabetes, breathing difficulties like sleep apnea and increased susceptibility to stress fractures and muscle-joint pain."  -- Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health.

• "Players, monitored by their coaches and parents, should seek to gain lean muscle on a slow, steady basis. There’s nothing wrong with gaining 30 pounds of muscle as long as it doesn’t come with 50 pounds of fat.” -- Kelly Laurson, doctoral candidate in kinesiology at Iowa State and lead author of the Iowa prep study.