Davis Wants More Than a Slim Chance

Reggie White’s death provided the wake-up call, Kirby Puckett’s the confirmation.

Former USC running back Anthony Davis said last month that because of sleep- and weight-related health problems similar to those of White, a pro football Hall of Famer who died in 2004 at 43, he decided last year to undergo gastric bypass surgery. The procedure is scheduled for today at a hospital in La Jolla and will be shown live on the Internet.

Earlier this week, after baseball Hall of Famer Puckett died at 45 after suffering a stroke, the 5-foot-10, 285-pound Davis said he was looking forward to the procedure, which will limit the amount of food he can ingest.

“Reggie White was a walking time bomb, just like Kirby was -- you saw what happened,” said Davis, who will be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame this summer. “I don’t want that to happen to me.”

Davis, 53, said he also wanted to raise awareness of former athletes, especially African American males, about the risks and problems associated with sleep apnea and obesity.

“I just want to let other former athletes know this is something you have to deal with. I want to let guys know, if you have a problem, get it taken care of.”

Davis, a real estate developer and construction contractor who lives in Irvine, weighed 175 to 185 pounds when he starred at USC in the early 1970s.

The 1974 Heisman Trophy runner-up says his weight has increased substantially in the last few years in part because he suffers -- as White did -- from sleep apnea, which repeatedly causes one to stop breathing during sleep. Davis says he sleeps with the aid of a machine and nasal mask, but that the condition has affected his metabolism and he has high uric acid and elevated blood pressure.

“That’s a lethal combination, or it potentially can be,” he said.

Davis said he was aware that some would criticize his choosing surgery rather than trying to work off the weight through exercise and diet. He said his business schedule and back and knee problems resulting from football preclude him from working out regularly.

“It would take me much longer to lose 100 pounds doing it the traditional way and in the process of that I don’t want to stress myself out, having heart attacks,” he said.

Davis’s laparoscopic procedure, which will be cybercast on www.liteandhope.com, is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. and last about 90 minutes.