Bus: Challenge and Risk to Big Men
Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 11:13 amFrom WSJ, here is a risk for the Big Men in FB. It is concerning that the sport's reliance on size, increases the risks for athletes and each fan, for that matter. 
The Philadelphia Eagles' Shawn Andrews is a fat man. There. It's been said.
He doesn't want to be one, however. Yes, he's an offensive lineman, and "lithe" isn't in the job description. But pushing 400 pounds? That's dangerous, and Mr. Andrews knows it -- and he recently got a tragic reminder.
"In April, weeks into a diet that was showing results, Andrews went to a park near his Arkansas home with a childhood buddy named Willie," writes Ashley Fox in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The two had ridden the bus together to third grade, had pigged out in home economics class, had played hoops. Like Andrews, Willie was a big man, but unlike Andrews, he had stopped working out years ago. That day, Andrews and Willie sat at the park watching the cars go by, talking about their lives and winking at girls. Afterward, Andrews went to Subway, ordering a chicken teriyaki sandwich on whole wheat bread, Sun chips, and a bottle of water. Two hours later, he got the call. Willie was dead, apparently of a heart attack brought on by high blood pressure. He was 23."
"I don't want to die because I'm too fat," Mr. Andrews says. "Everybody has problems. Everybody has things they have to work on, you know. Everybody's human."
The Philadelphia Eagles' Shawn Andrews is a fat man. There. It's been said.
He doesn't want to be one, however. Yes, he's an offensive lineman, and "lithe" isn't in the job description. But pushing 400 pounds? That's dangerous, and Mr. Andrews knows it -- and he recently got a tragic reminder.
"In April, weeks into a diet that was showing results, Andrews went to a park near his Arkansas home with a childhood buddy named Willie," writes Ashley Fox in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The two had ridden the bus together to third grade, had pigged out in home economics class, had played hoops. Like Andrews, Willie was a big man, but unlike Andrews, he had stopped working out years ago. That day, Andrews and Willie sat at the park watching the cars go by, talking about their lives and winking at girls. Afterward, Andrews went to Subway, ordering a chicken teriyaki sandwich on whole wheat bread, Sun chips, and a bottle of water. Two hours later, he got the call. Willie was dead, apparently of a heart attack brought on by high blood pressure. He was 23."
"I don't want to die because I'm too fat," Mr. Andrews says. "Everybody has problems. Everybody has things they have to work on, you know. Everybody's human."
