Grant Cohn: Heart issues a core problem facing NFL
Three hundred and thirty-five-pound San Francisco 49ers guard Thomas Herrion died at his locker after a preseason game on Aug. 20, 2005. He had heart disease. He was 23.
Eleven years before Herrion died, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health examined 7,000 football players and decided the life expectancy for linemen is just 52 years. According to the study, linemen also have a 52-percent greater chance of getting heart disease than other people.
Heart disease is a root problem for the NFL. The league can improve helmet technology and tackling techniques to limit concussions, but the league cannot make linemen smaller.
Teams want the biggest, strongest players. That won't change. 49ers general manager Trent Baalke recently made that clear when he laid out his team-building philosophy at a pre-draft press conference: 'When you look at the makeup of the team from a structural standpoint, we want to be big and we want to big physical,' he said.
Teams are getting bigger and bigger. Last season, the Niners had eleven players who weighed at least 280 pounds. In 1984, the Niners only had one — offensive tackle Bubba Paris. They listed his weight at 295.
Bill Walsh thought Paris was too big, so Walsh kept him on a diet. One year during training camp, Walsh made Paris stand on a scale every day to make sure he weighed no more than 325. For nine weeks in a row, the scale said Paris weighed 323. Walsh was pleased.
Next to the scale was a Coke machine and a stack of empty wooden Coke-bottle crates. Paris cleverly was leaning on the crates while he stood on the scale. He was displacing some of his weight. One day, he tried to lean on the crates, but he missed and almost fell over — a delivery man had moved the crates a foot. Paris got back on the scale, and he weighed 336.
Today, Paris wouldn't have to lean on a table and pretend he's lighter than he is. Today, he would fit right in. Every offensive linemen currently on the 49ers weighs more than 300 pounds.
Have linemen become too big for their own good?
Board Certified Cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra believes that is not the case. Dr. Sinatra says there is nothing inherently unhealthy about being a 330-pound linemen, although he says they could be healthier. And just to be clear – during our interview, which lasted half an hour, Dr. Sinatra never said, 'I did it my way.'
Here's what he said: 'It's a good thing that these offensive linemen are very strong and agile and big. They're exercising. They're burning off sugar and they're getting sugar inside their cells. When they retire and get heavier and don't exercise, then they're in trouble from a cardiovascular point of view. The risk profile is much larger as they get older.'
What's the primary issue facing offensive linemen while they're playing?
'Heavy people contain a lot of inflammatory chemicals in the body,' said Dr. Sinatra. 'The popular name for those chemicals is 'cytokines.' These cytokines, or these inflammatory chemicals, they live in fat cells. If you feel your belly right now, your love handles, that's triglyceride. These triglycerides, these fat cells, they're the home of all these inflammatory cytokines.
'When we're fat, we're much more inflamed. When a man gets a waistline greater than 40, he becomes a little hypertensive and he develops higher blood pressure, higher blood lipids. And he develops metabolic syndrome, which is an inflammatory form of diabetes. And that causes heart disease.'
The Source of Inflammation, and the dark side of Gatorade
What can the NFL do to protect linemen from inflammation and heart disease?
'They need a Gatorade without sugar in it,' said Dr. Sinatra. 'They need a Gatorade that doesn't have artificial colorings or dyes. Whoever is making Gatorade needs to make a healthier Gatorade for these athletes.
A 28-ounce bottle of Gatorade 'G' series (the one that says 'Prime, perform, recover' on the label) contains 52.5 grams of sugar.
'Sugar brings nothing to the table,' Dr. Sinatra said. 'All it does is create an insulin response. It's very pro-inflammatory on the body. It's a perfect storm. These linemen not only are eating like crazy and pumping iron and putting on bulk, but now they're taking on sugar. And sugar over many years creates inflammation.'
Is coconut water a good substitute?
'Coconut water is very good,' said Dr. Sinatra. 'Why? It has much more potassium. It doesn't have the sugar. And it doesn't have the artificial ingredients. I'm a big fan.
'Gatorade has a dark side – there is no question. Just give the athletes a drink where they're protected as opposed to getting more inflamed. That's No.1.'
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: