Football is about to kick off!  I love the sport, especially High School and College. 

Way back, a long time ago in late April of 2011, the highly anticipated and celebrated professional football draft took place.  To the shock of most football pundits, offensive tackle Tyron Smith became the Dallas Cowboy’s first offensive linemen selected in the first round since Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989.

The problem was that most scouts were very concerned about Smith’s size… 307 pounds!  That’s huge! 

When I played college football, the “biggest” guy on the team, and in the conference, weighed 302 pounds.  I know for certain that he did because in a goal line scrimmage, he fell on top of me!  I felt I was going to be smothered to death near the ‘ol alma mater end zone!  Before I was rescued, all my teammates and coaches could see of me were my arms hopelessly flailing.

The pro scouts felt Smith was “too small”.  Too small!?  Does being undersized at 307 pounds sound crazy?  Maybe, but from whose perspective?  Last season, the offensive linemen at football powerhouse Euless Trinity High School, here in North Central Texas, averaged 262 pounds!  Trinity had five offensive linemen who weighed more than 300 pounds. A high school!

When a 307-pound man is considered undersized or “too small” — and when teen players hear him described that way – then Houston, we’ve got a problem!   The football weight race is now officially out of hand.   

Did you know that each year there are only 2,000 professional football players, but there are a million plus boys playing high school football, and a lot of them are gaining unhealthy amounts of weight?  98% out of 100 high school football players will never receive a college scholarship to play football, yet they are forcing themselves to gain weight with all kinds of unhealthy ways.  In fact, according to the NCAA;  approximately 5.8%, or less than one in 17 of all high school senior boys playing interscholastic football will go on to play football at a NCAA member institution.

Approximately one in 50, or 1.8% of NCAA senior football players will get drafted by a National Football League (NFL) team.   Eight in 10,000, or approximately 0.08% of high school senior boys playing interscholastic football will eventually be drafted by an NFL team

Of those who are recruited to play in college, 79 of 80 will never earn a dime in the NFL, yet MOST are forcing themselves to gain weight in dangerous ways.  In a society with a terrible obesity epidemic, having the most popular sport celebrate weight gain is NOT good.  

So what can be done about this problem?  My suggestion is that if your son or grandson loves to play the sport, then you need to MONITOR his weight gains during the season and during the off season. 

KNOW what he’s doing to “put it on”. 

Educate him on the extreme risks of high weight gain such as cardiovascular and diabetes problems as well as orthopedic problems in the low back, knees, hips and ankles. 

Find a certified personal trainer or a licensed health care professional such as a chiropractic sports physician who can work with him on a level that will make all the difference in his world for the here and now as well as for his future way down the road when playing the sport will be either a great memory or a painful, lingering health problem that robbed him of many years.