4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
HEALTH
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2005
POUNDS of PERFORMANCE
Ryan Cantrell BMI: 36
An immovable wall?
Body Mass Index is a formula that relates an individual's height to his weight. An individual with a BMI above 30 is considered obese. Someone with a BMI above 35 is considered to be severely obese. All of the Kansas offensive linemen have BMIs above 30.
David Ochoa BMI:35
Cesar Rodriguez BMI: 32
Matt Thompson
BMI: 36
Bob Whitaker
BMJ 02
Sources: Kansas Athletics Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Kim Andrew/KANSAN Rodney Allen, one of KU's junior defensive lineman, fils his plate at the Burge Union for a hearty meal Monday evening. Football players must maintain a large build on and off season.
Kim Andrews/KANSAN
Jonathan Kealing/KANSAN
Pounds
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Linemen like 317-pound Bob Whittaker and 285-pound David Ochoa must consume 5,000 calories each day to maintain the size needed to open holes or protect the quarterback.
Offensive linemen consume about 5,000 calories each day. If you wanted to eat enough food for that many calories, you'd need to eat the following:
Nutritionists urge Americans to maintain a modest 2,500-calorie diet to stay healthy. During the past 20 years football offensive lines have ballooned in size with players urged to eat twice as many calories.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE?
♦ 10 McDonald's double cheeseburger
♦ 21 Small McDonald's french fries
♦ 24 medium Coca-Colas
♦ 17 six-inch ham subs from Subway
♦ 60 bowl of General Mills Corn Flakes
♦ 22 slices of Pizza Hut peperoni pizza
Source: Company Web sites
The average weight of the starting KU offensive line was 260 pounds in 1985. This season, the offensive linemen weighed in at a whopping 293 pounds, an increase of 33 pounds in just 20 years.
The growing girth of football players, especially on the offensive line, is a concern to doctors who cite heart disease and damaged joints as two health concerns related to obesity. College and professional linemen weighing more than 300 pounds, including the San Francisco 49ers Thomas Herrion, have died after games in recent years. Obesity among football players is a visible, yet little explored, corner of the U.S. obesity epidemic.
The super-sizing of college football players raises serious questions about what happens to giant-sized 44
How did this increase in size occur?
The super-siz football players questions about to giant-sized student athletes after they leave college and future health problems they might face.
The size of linemen is apparent simply by tuning into a college football game on
This summer, Herrion, a rookie offensive lineman died
Saturday. The 300-pounders are tough to miss, many with their stomachs hanging over their belts.
While William "The Retriggerator" Perry once stood out as an exception, it is now rare to see an offensive lineman at the professional level who does not weight more than 300 pounds. The average weight of the Kansas City Chiefs starting line for the 2005 season was 310 pounds.
It is hard to say it's the healthiest lifestyle for them to weigh 300 pounds. But the reality of Division I football is that you have to weigh 300 pounds or you can't compete."
after collapsing during a preseason game. He weighed 330 pounds. In the summer of 2001, the Minnesota Vikings' Korey Stringer died of what an autopsy revealed as a heat stroke. He weighed 335 pounds.
Larry McGee, Kansas head team physician, is concerned with the rapid increase in the size of players.
"The human race is not evolving that quickly. It has to do with the dietary thing, it has to do with the weight training, it has to do with the year-round stuff," McGee said. "I think the players just carry more weight."
Larry McGee Team Physician
M c G e e, who came to the University in 1983, said the increase in weight became noticeable in the mid 1990s with the arrival of two 300-pound players, offensive lineman Keith Loneker and defensive lineman Gilbert Brown. Their
size was rare at the time.
"They were these huge people and now you have to be that big to play on the offensive line. It is a huge amount of difference." McGee said.
In order to remain competitive, KU linemen must now grow, mostly through intense diets recommended by KU's sports nutritionist.
This year marks the first time that the Kansas Athletics Department has employed a sports nutritionist. Randy Bird gives recommendations to every football player about
his food intake and plans the meals available at the Burge Union.
For offensive linemen, Bird recommends consuming nearly 5,000 calories and 125 grams of fat per day. That's double what the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends for an active male aged 19-30.
These diets have led to every player on the Kansas offensive line being considered obese according to the Body Mass Index — a measure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses to evaluate if a person is obese.
A Body Mass Index score above 30 is considered obese. The lowest index score on the body mass index for a Kansas starting offensive lineman is 32, while the highest is 38.
Even so, Kansas has the lightest offensive line in the Big 12 conference. The offensive line for Big 12-leading Texas averages nearly 314 pounds, compared to Kansas's 293 pounds.
Kansas football coach Mark Mangino said, "You certainly would like to have a large one that is athletic. Ours are not quite as heavy but we kind of play to their athleticism."
After one practice earlier this season, Mangino discussed how junior center David Ochoa arrived on campus his freshman year weighing only 260 pounds. He ran a lot during the summer to stay in
shape. Mangino joked that it was not a good decision because Ochoa actually lost weight while running, even though he was in great condition. Ochoa now weighs 285 pounds.
"I was never the type of athlete in high school or anything to step on the scale every day and see where I am at. I focus more on the physical conditioning aspect of anything than the actual playing weight," Ochoa said.
Sophomore offensive lineman Cesar Rodriguez has put on weight even more dramatically. He finished his senior year of high school at 220 pounds, and now, just three years later, Rodriguez is up to 286 pounds — the result of 5,000-calorie diets and work
in the weight room.
"As soon as I got here they put me on a weight program and I will probably be on it until I leave Kansas," Rodriguez said. "I was undersized when I first got here and I am just now starting to put on more weight."
Is it healthy? What long term heart heart does plavers face?
Despite their large size, McGee, the team doctor, said the players were young so the weight didn't create as big a problem at it would for older people.
"Youth overcomes a lot of physical problems. They are able to participate and be active carrying more weight than an older person can," McGee said.
However, a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this year reported cause for concern with football players and increasing obesity. The report was published just a few months before Herrion's death.
"You see the deaths in the NFL and, in my opinion, a lot of it has to do with the excess weight that the offensive linemen are carrying," Bird, the nutritionist, said.
Mangino, however, is not concerned with the growing size of players despite the deaths that have occurred nationally, he said.
Most of the players on Kansas' offensive line will not move on to play in the NFL and will instead enter the working world with large bodies and without the strenuous conditioning of practice.
"I have concern long-term-wise with cardiovascular disease, with joint problems just from carrying that much weight," McGee said. "It is hard to say it's the healthiest lifestyle for them to weigh 300 pounds. But the reality of Division I football is that you have to weigh 300 pounds or you can't compete."
Since last summer, all new players entering the Kansas program go through a medical screening for cardiac problems. Once in the program, however, players are not regularly monitored for heart problems, so problems that may occur after their arrival at the University may go undetected.
Players already in the program still go through regular physicals and blood testing each year.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5A
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