Weight Matters

At some point during John Michels’ rookie season with the Green Bay Packers, the days became a blur of cheeseburgers and steaks, pizza and ice cream.

The offensive lineman was a first-round draft pick, selected for his quickness and technique, but at 285 pounds he was considered small in the modern, super-sized NFL. His coaches wanted him to reach the industry standard of 300.

So he ate.

“The battle became trying to eat six meals a day,” he said. “It didn’t matter if I was hungry or not, I always had to put something in my body.”

Food became so monotonous that anything different, even liver and onions, was appealing. Each night before bed, if the bathroom scale read a few pounds light, he went back downstairs for a box of cereal or several peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. The next morning, just before weighing in at practice, he drank a nutritional shake.

And one more thing.

Creatine became a staple of his diet. The over-the-counter supplement, which promises to add bulk, has come under scrutiny by a medical community that suspects it might be linked to kidney damage. Michels shrugs off any mention of risk, saying his coaches needed him to protect Brett Favre from monstrous defensive ends and, if he didn’t make weight, “it could cost me my career.”

Such is the culture of a league growing by leaps and pounds. Not only have linemen gotten bigger each season, so have running backs and linebackers and safeties. The prototypical receiver runs like a sprinter and looks like a tight end. While size and speed have made the game more spectacular, an increasing number of medical experts--and players--wonder if there is a price to pay.

Simple physics suggest that more mass puts more stress on the body. The resulting collisions are more violent.

“We’ve forced ourselves to be bigger athletes, but our bone structure is the same as it was 50 years ago,” says Ed Cunningham, who played for the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks in the 1990s and now works as a television analyst. “We’re getting to a point where the norm will be catastrophic injuries--broken necks, broken femurs--on a regular basis.”

Just as worrisome is the pressure to add pounds. While Michels speaks of gorging himself and ingesting a potentially dangerous supplement, others have been caught taking anabolic steroids. This dynamic reverberates throughout football, down through the college ranks and into the high schools.

“I thought the brakes were going to hit this one, really, 10, 15 years ago,” New England Patriot Coach Bill Belichick said. “Each year, you walk out there and say, ‘This year’s group is bigger than last year’s group.’”

Arms Race

Cunningham might be overstating things when he predicts more broken necks, but the league could experience an increase in other injuries exacerbated by players carrying more weight, the former president of the NFL Physicians Society said.

“Human bone and human articular cartilage has been formed to withstand a certain degree of stress,” said Dr. Pierce Scranton, who spent 17 years as orthopedic surgeon for the Seahawks and recently wrote a book: “Playing Hurt: Treating and Evaluating the Warriors of the NFL.”

Scranton believes large players are more at risk for non-contact injuries, their tendons and hamstrings rupturing in the heat of competition.

“Now, all of a sudden, the guys who are playing these games are 325 pounds and they’re running 4.75 40s and benching 525 pounds,” he said. “Their bones and joints just aren’t made to withstand that.”

With collisions “equivalent to a car accident,” the doctor also expects more contact injuries ranging from concussions to pinched nerves. San Diego Charger defensive end Marcellus Wiley suffered the latter when he took on Terrell Davis of the Denver Broncos.

Two months later, Wiley still has trouble turning his head.

“These guys are mountains, man, and they’re fast mountains,” he said. “You can’t bring them down with just an arm anymore.”

Consider the last 10 years in the evolution of the league.

In the spring of 1991, USC offensive lineman Pat Harlow was a first-round draft pick at 288 pounds. That seems boyish compared with last April’s highest-rated lineman, 365-pound Leonard Davis of Texas. In the last decade, the number of 300-pounders in the NFL has increased from 50 to 290.

San Francisco 49er cornerback Ahmed Plummer learned the changing physics of the game by practicing each day against the 6-foot-3, 226-pound Terrell Owens. Though Plummer is 191, hardly light for his position, it’s enough to make him yearn for a few more pounds.

“Wide receivers are bigger and more physical,” he said. “They can get off bump-and-run coverage because of their strength. You don’t ever want to get pushed around.”

So, while some teams still favor athletic linemen or small, fast receivers, scouts often look for a player with, as they say, lead in his pants. Even quarterbacks are being evaluated by height and weight as front offices throw themselves into the arms’ race.

“If one team has a big offensive line, the other teams in that division will draft bigger defensive players to compensate,” said Mike Golic, a former Philadelphia Eagle defensive tackle who follows the game as an ESPN radio host. “They feel they’ve got to keep up.”

Needing to Gain

This dynamic has added a twist to the traditional weigh-in before practice.

For years it was common to see big guys sweating in the sauna, hoping to lose a few pounds and avoid a fine. Now, just as many players are chugging a last-second protein shake, needing to gain. And coaches are more accepting of guts that hang over belts.

“There are times where you just have to hang on for dear life as an offensive lineman,” Cunningham said. “Technique is out the window. The only thing that lets you win is that you weigh 300 pounds.”

But medical experts cite a litany of concerns related to playing heavy. The death of Minnesota Viking lineman Korey Stringer last summer raised questions about heat illness, a problem that can be explained by something called the “body mass over surface area ratio.”

In plain terms, if a 270-pound player adds 30 pounds of muscle, he significantly enhances his body’s ability to generate heat, especially during practice or a game. But he has barely increased the surface area of his skin, crucial to dissipating that heat. “When you get these people who are 300 pounds and 6-foot-5, those are not good numbers,” said Robert Girandola, an associate professor of kinesiology at USC.

Other problems can arise over the long run.

“In general, the heavier you are, the greater your risk of diabetes, heart disease and other problems,” said Dr. Gary Green, an associate professor at the UCLA School of Medicine who specializes in athletics. “High cholesterol also goes into your risk factors.”

In 1994, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health surveyed almost 7,000 men who had played in the NFL from 1959 to 1988 and found that linemen had a 52% greater risk of dying from heart disease than the general population. “Anyone considering bulking up to play football should also consider the very real threat of heart disease,” researcher Dr. Sherry Baron said.

It’s hard to know how many current players are pushing their body sizes to extremes. At Green Bay, Michels recalls at least two other offensive linemen who struggled to maintain bulk, especially during the rigors of training camp and a long season.

The former USC star battled a metabolism that burned calories as fast as he could stuff them in his mouth, even with lunches of four cheeseburgers and “a ton of fries.” For most people, that sounds like heaven. For him, it was a curse. At least it kept his cholesterol and blood pressure in check.

Cunningham wasn’t as lucky. Every meal was “a stuffing situation” as he struggled to stay at 290, his cholesterol ratio peaking at an unhealthy 9.6. But high cholesterol was preferable to the potential side effects of a well-known alternative: steroids.

These banned substances have been linked to an array of health risks, yet each season brings new rumors of widespread use. In recent months, players ranging from Seahawk cornerback Shawn Springs to defensive tackle Henry Taylor now with the Miami Dolphins, were caught cheating.

Girandola, for one, cannot imagine how so many players could have gotten so big without steroids.

The general population, he said, is growing at a rate of about one or two inches and 30 pounds every 30 years. The NFL has grown that much in a decade.

“I don’t think it’s magical,” the kinesiology professor said. “There are so many anabolic products out there, it would be naive to think that people are not going to take something.”

Ripple Effect

The new generation of college and pro players is making an impression on youngsters who watch sports on television. Wiley sees a ripple effect when he goes to Pop Warner games.

“Those kids will be drinking sports drinks and protein shakes,” he said. “They leave the snack bar alone with those candy bars and potato chips.”

The desire to get bigger takes on urgency when they reach high school, where 300-pounders, once a rarity, are becoming common. This season, Long Beach Poly had four of them. Alta Loma had three on its offensive line.

Better nutrition at an early age--the awareness that Wiley witnessed--deserves some credit. More high schools have expensive weight rooms and training personnel. Still, coaches worry about the pressure kids put on themselves.

“It’s almost like if you’re not 300 pounds and not 6-foot whatever, you’re not going to make it,” Upland Coach Tim Salter said earlier this season.

Some youngsters simply increase their intake of pizza and chocolate malts without the nutritional supplements or supervised training that players such as Michels get in the NFL. “We get some kids who come in so big they can’t move,” said Chris Carlisle, strength and conditioning coach at USC.

Carlisle’s job is to trim the fat and replace it with muscle. The process can take months, causing players to redshirt their freshman seasons, but he prefers the big eaters to the ones who seek other methods. Especially troublesome are athletes whose frames aren’t quite large enough to carry the added weight.

Green, the UCLA professor, asks a critical question: “At some point if your body can’t get any bigger ... what do you do?”

As chairman of the NCAA’s drug testing committee, he says that undersized teens with oversized aspirations represent a particular risk for steroid use. Many of them end up at junior colleges and smaller universities where, unlike big-time college football or the NFL, there is no testing.

For want of extra pounds, cheaters could suffer everything from heart and liver damage to interference with reproductive functions over the long term.

“They don’t care about an increased risk of prostate cancer when they’re 60,” Green said. “Whenever there’s pressure, there will always be people who are going to cheat.”

Genetically Designed Bodies

It’s a simple equation.

Fans want the spectacle, the speed and violence. Football teams keep improving nutrition and conditioning techniques to remain competitive. Some players search for ways to use performance-enhancing substances and avoid detection.

The result: No end in sight for the enlarging of the game.

“We look at ESPN Classic and say ‘Wow, players now are so much bigger and faster,’” Wiley said. “One day we’ll be on ESPN Classic and folks will be checking us out and saying the same thing.”

And what of the risks?

Nutrition and training advancements that are feeding the flames also could act as mitigating factors. Strength coaches such as Carlisle believe they can better prepare athletes for physical punishment. Plummer, of the 49ers, hopes the technology will catch up to collisions on the field.

In the meantime, experts are studying retired players. Having already documented maladies among athletes who left the game in the 1960s and ‘70s, they expect the situation to worsen because of the size factor.

Some players--such as Cunningham--quickly shed 60 or more pounds after retirement, which reduces their risk of developing problems. But Green said others struggle with weight control, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Often, they are too beaten up to exercise.

And Scranton estimates that, in coming years, every player retiring from the NFL will suffer from arthritis or other ailments related to substantial joint damage in the neck, lower back and knees. He considers it inevitable with 300-pound men who can run faster and hit harder than ever before.

“We have cultivated a superhuman,” he said. “But in the course of doing that, they’re also subjected to forces far beyond their genetically designed bodies.”

Taking Another Shot

Michels also has doubts about the bigger-is-better theory, though his concerns are slightly different. He proudly recalls a time during his rookie season when he fell ill and his weight plummeted to 269. Playing against the St. Louis Rams, he held his own against Leslie O’Neal.

“Good feet. Used my hands,” he said. “Shut him down.”

Still, Packer coaches weren’t convinced, telling him to report the next summer at 315 or 320, figuring he would lose pounds as the season progressed. Even at 6-6, Michels believes the added bulk robbed him of valuable endurance and quickness.

His performance slipped, and he lost his starting spot. A torn knee ligament wiped out the next season. By the fall of 1999, he’d been traded to the Eagles, released and was out of football.

His weight dropped by 50 pounds as he reveled in the freedom to go an entire day eating only a blueberry muffin. “A beautiful thing,” he said.

Yet, after several years working as a youth pastor and coaching at Mission Viejo High, the 28-year-old is back in the weight room, back at 285, preparing for another shot at the NFL. This time, he hopes to join a team such as the Rams or 49ers who favor somewhat smaller linemen.

If need be, he will return to his old dietary regimen.

He jokes about growing accustomed to NFL-style eating even as his metabolism slows with age.

“You watch, the day I retire I’m going to be 330 pounds and I won’t be able to shed a pound,” he says. “Wouldn’t that be a cruel, sick twist of fate?”

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Caution, Wide Load

In 1978, rule changes permitted offensive linemen to extend their elbows beyond the span of their shoulders, allowing them to hand check when they blocked. These rule changes brought about a new era in offensive line play, where linemen needed more bulk and less maneuverability against the defensive line. The 300-pound players:

(text of infobox not included)

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Hog Wild

That sudden increase in girth among linemen dates to Washington’s offensive line of the 1980s. The Redskins won two Super Bowls behind the “Hogs,” who excelled at plowing holes for Coach Joe Gibbs’ one-back offenses.

1971...Super Bowl VI

Miami offensive line...253.2 pounds

Dallas offensive line...253.0 pounds

1981...Super Bowl XVI

Cincinnati offensive line...272.4 pounds

San Francisco offensive line...260.6 pounds

1991...Super Bowl XXVI

Buffalo offensive line...293.4 pounds

Washington offensive line...285.0 pounds

2001...Super Bowl XXXVI

New England offensive line...314.4 pounds

St. Louis offensive line...305.8 pounds