Posted on 03/01/2005 5:50:13 PM PST by TypeZoNegative
CHICAGO - It's no secret that size matters in the National Football League, but a new study suggests that a whopping 56 percent of NFL players would be considered obese by some medical standards.
The NFL called the study bogus for using players' body-mass index, a height-to-weight ratio that doesn't consider body muscle versus fat. The players' union said that despite the familiar sight of bulging football jerseys, there's no proof that obesity is rampant in the league.
HHS/CDC brilliance? These are the guys that are supposed to protect us from plagues, outbreaks, deaths in the millions? And they think pro football players are - obese? Maybe some offensive linemen carry a roll. But if that's obese, then may everyone be obese! They're often able to play four quarters against guys the size of trees, with iron girders for arms. And these gubment jokers think that some running back is obese because he's heavy and short, then they need to put him in a weight tank, and see how much of that is fat. I suppose the lesson here is that maybe, just maybe, this talk of obesity in the population is also a lot of nonsense?
BMI does not take into consideration body composition. It does not differentiate weight from muscle and weight from fat.
Yeah, you do have to take into account muscle mass, whihc
the BMI doesn't...
I would fail miserably...
Most people think I weigh about 40 pds less than I do cuz
much of my weight is muskuls..even if I got down to 1% body
fat, I would be off the insurance actuarial charts as
obese...
But there is a down side, mass is still mass...even if you're
all muscle, you still gotta pump blood to all the tissue,
and if you start getting clogged arteries, or your hearts
contractility decreases, you could get problems...
But I do have to admit, whe way the NFL plays now, it is
a bunch of large sumo wrestlers (on the lines), and
bulldozers for the backs, and linebackers, and the acrobats,
namely the wide receivers, and defensive backs...
If they want to get rid of the fat on theplayers, decrease
substitution to 1 player on each team per play, make the
play go off every 20 seconds instead of 25, make rules to
allow plays to go on longer (like forcing laterals(e.g...
give extra 2 points to a TD when a lateral is used on the
play..)...that would lead to longer plays, and more
excitement also...
Obviously there's a difference between huge-and-fat and huge-and-muscular. But these overdeveloped pro athletes tend to have lifespans way shorter than average.
And if you see most non-offensive linemen in football, they're probably the most athletic athletes in all of pro sports.
In what other sport do you have athletes who can run in the olympics, do international weightlifting competitions, be blackbelts in various martial arts, be in ballet, be wolrd-class jumpers and can do marathons?
In what other sport can those athletes be all of those?
I agree the NFL ought to have a weight limit
Those 335 lb linemen are going to have hell to pay in their later years
About five years ago, Navy Times had an article about armed forces body fat measurements.
The USMC had the lowest average.
According to the article, the average NFL linemen were lower than Marines!
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