Ex-College Football Players "Get Their Bodies Back.&quo

[oregonpackfan]

This week's issue of Sports Illustrated magazine deals with the health issues of former college football players who don't make the NFL(only 3% actually make it to the pros) and have to deal with reducing their weight for health reasons.

The article focus on former senior Oregon Ducks' linemen Jeff Kendall and Cole Linehan(pp.56-60). Both players were good starting linemen but not skilled enough to be drafted by the pros.

Both young men were over 300 lbs. as college players but faced health issues when their eating habits continued after football and their weights increased.

Fortunately, both young men sought nutrition counseling, changed their exercise habits, and lost 30-40 pounds. Other former college football players are not so fortunate.

It is an interesting article:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1156213/index.htm

[Guiness]

Great topic for an article, I just read the first couple of paragraphs. Linemen especially would have it tough - especially the unathletic ones, that really are, as they put it, 'fat kids living the dream'.

With college boys regularly being over 300lbs now, it would be a tough road for them.

[Noodle]

That was a great article. It kind of goes to the bigger point that a lot of these kids really are left high and dry at the end of their college careers, physically and academically. It's not all the fault of the schools, but you'd like to think they'd do a lot better helping undo the damage these guys inflict on themselves.

[Patler]

That was a great article. It kind of goes to the bigger point that a lot of these kids really are left high and dry at the end of their college careers, physically and academically. It's not all the fault of the schools, but you'd like to think they'd do a lot better helping undo the damage these guys inflict on themselves.

I think the schools do have a responsibility. It is at least partly the school's fault since the damage the players do to themselves is often encouraged, if not insisted on by the team. The players are paid via scholarship. Their "employer" insists they need to get bigger. What will the kid do?

[ND72]

the battle for your body goes on and on. I only played for 2 years at a D-2 school, but my body is F'd! I reported to college weighing 250 pounds, coaches told me if I wanted to play I had to get up to between 285-300. By the end of my 2nd year I was 300. When I quit, 2 ankle injuries, knee injury, tore the deltoid off my bone, hips hurt....my body did not want to do anything for a while, so I put more weight on. When I graduated college, I was probably around 330. At the end of my sophomore year, I benched 225 30 times, now, because of my shoulder, I struggle to get 12. I have reduced back down to 300, and hope to be down to 285-290 by July for my wedding, but the battle never ends. I know one guy who reported to colelge at 330, and is now around 450, and I fear for him.

[Noodle]

Holy crap, ND, that's terrible!

Seriously, I tend to only think about the BCS schools and what they put their guys through, but I guess your experience shows that it's all over the place.

That's always been my problem with the game. I love it more than any other, but I hate what it does to players, especially as you move up from High School.

[ND72]

Holy crap, ND, that's terrible!

Seriously, I tend to only think about the BCS schools and what they put their guys through, but I guess your experience shows that it's all over the place.

That's always been my problem with the game. I love it more than any other, but I hate what it does to players, especially as you move up from High School.

It is why I question my motives back then, I knew I wasn't going to play in the NFL. But, I remember my high school coaching telling me I wouldn't make it on a D2 team, so it drove me even more. But the one morning came when I seriously crawled out of bed to the bathroom that I knew it was done, dream over. And honestly, it's the best thing that happened to me. After I quit, I got into a high school and started coaching, and I still have a ton of connections to those boys I coached, and I still have a love afair with that high school.