NFL heart profile good, with a caveat
Football players have higher blood pressure on average
By Nathan Seppa
Professional football players have pretty good cardiovascular scores despite being really big, researchers report. But the gridiron warriors have higher blood pressure than regular guys, on average, according to a study in the May 27 Journal of the American Medical Association.
The National Football League requested a study on players’ cardiovascular risks in light of the fact that players have bulked up dramatically in recent decades. Whereas a 240-pound man could routinely be found on a defensive line 30 years ago, that slot is now filled by players weighing 280 pounds or more.
The health effect of a lot of extra weight has been unclear because studies seeking to understand the trade-off between extra poundage and exceptional fitness in football players have been small, says Andrew Tucker, a sports medicine physician at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.
In the new study, Tucker and a team of investigators analyzed off-season health data obtained in 2007 from 504 NFL players on 12 teams. The researchers also gathered information on 1,959 men participating in a separate health study. On average, the football players were slightly younger and considerably heavier and taller than the control group.