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Nick Hardwick: Was it Atkins or Grapefruit

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by cjericho, Feb 4, 2015.

  1. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    cjericho, Feb 4, 2015
    #1
  2. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    What''s interesting to me here is Hardwick began his football career with a similarly dramatic transformation. Played no high school football. As a junior at Purdue tries the sport as a walk on. A year later is an All Big 10 stud.

    So the same guy who once went from normal college student to 300 lb NFL lineman SO stunningly fast now transforms back into normal skinny guy in less than 5 months. Hmmm......
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2015
    Stoney, Feb 4, 2015
    #2
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Good for him. He wasn't one of the 330 pounders. ... but few people follow linemen after they retire, and there have been so many of them who balloon up to 400 pound + after they retire. They keep eating the way they did when they were playing, except they are now older and they aren't getting as much activity and exercise as they did during their playing days. So they go from relattively healthy to fatter and fatter and way too many drop dead of heart attacks at young ages. The NFL and the NFLPA are well aware that this is an issue.

    What Hardwick did is not an easy thing to do -- which is why so many get fatte rand fatter after their careers. He had to have worked his ass off and really had made it a priority -- he must have known carrying that weight beyond a playing career would not be good for his life expectancy, and the longer he waited the harder it would get to fix it.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 5, 2015
    #3
  4. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Didn't Jordan Gross drop a bunch of weight very quickly after retiring last year? I think maybe Peter King had a story on it.
     
    JackReacher, Feb 5, 2015
    #4
  5. Big Circus

    Big Circus Well-Known Member

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who had that thought.

    Jack, didn't the article mention Gross? Maybe I found it googling. Jeff Saturday also dropped a bunch of weight.
     
    Big Circus, Feb 5, 2015
    #5
  6. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Nate Newton has also lost a ton of weight in the last few years, but I think he had gastric sleeve surgery.

    But there are two kinds of linemen: those who have to eat and work out to keep weight ON, and those who have to eat right and work out to keep it off. Maybe Hardwick was one of the former.
     
    Steak Snabler, Feb 5, 2015
    #6
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    How exactly does fat help players in the trenches? Does sheer weight helps as leverage? I'm sure Hardwick lost some muscle, as well, but I'm curious about how much fat these guys have to put on in order to pack on a comparably small amount of muscle, and whether it's worth it, both health-wise and playing-wise.

    I remember at the opening press conference in the fall for the team I covered, the coach rattled off how all of these linemen gained 30 pounds of muscle since spring practice. No they didn't, I wrote the next day. He's either exaggerating, or fat's included.

    The SID emails me all in a tizzy the next day. "We don't lie!" OK, then they took steroids. Which is it?
     
    Dick Whitman, Feb 5, 2015
    #7
  8. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I've lost track of the number of coaches who have claimed that someone put on "20-30 pounds of muscle since spring"

    And when a player goes from walk-on to starter to first-round draft pick, I would bet the majority of the time HGH or steroids are involved.
     
    RecoveringJournalist, Feb 5, 2015
    #8
  9. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]

    Watt did you say?
     
    poindexter, Feb 5, 2015
    #9
  10. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Now we're in oop hell. Thanks a lot, poin.
     
    LongTimeListener, Feb 5, 2015
    #10
    JackReacher likes this.
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