NFL Obesity

Obesity might just rival traumatic brain injury as a health concern for retired NFL players.

NFL players are sometimes cited as examples of weakness in BMI as a tool for identifying obesity. In a 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers concluded that the BMI of most NFL players (56%) is in the range of obesity. The league and the players dismissed the analysis because it did not consider muscle mass. Of course, the league was also busy dismissing traumatic brain injury at the time.

Now additional studies are highlighting the risk of obesity for retired NFL players. In a study newly published in the Southern Medical Journal, investigators found that 61% of retired NFL players had evidence of coronary artery disease that correlated directly with their BMI. Another study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), found obesity in 64% of retired NFL players, along with a high rate of sleep disordered breathing, hypertension, high cholesterol, and abnormal blood sugar.

Says Jeffrey Potteiger, who has studied the growing bulk of football players over decades:

For years they’ve told these players to gain weight, gain weight, get bigger, get bigger. And now they have cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.  If NFL players and college players are encouraged to gain all this body weight, doesn’t the league have some level of responsibility to help that individual lose weight and become more healthy after their career is over?

While we don’t see much on this from the NFL itself, the NFL Players Association and the Living Heart Foundation have launched the HOPE Program to address cardiovascular and obesity related health risks for retired NFL players.

With activists like James Thornton and Corey Louchiey speaking out, perhaps they’ll make some progress.

Click here to read the study in the Southern Medical Journal, here to read the study in JACC, and here to read more in Smithsonian. You can read more about the Living Heart Foundation’s Hope program here.

Like a Linebacker, photograph © tomscy2000 / flickr

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