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NFL players: height and weight over time

noahveltman.com

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Re: NFL players: height and weight over time

#31

Post by danielweber »

S_A_P wrote: post #10

I wonder if this has compounded the TBI and concussion issue over the years. I think sports medicine in general has gotten much better and the average player is probably bigger and stronger and thus able to hit harder than 20+ years ago...

The extreme specialization is bad for the bodies, too. When players are in specific positions, you basically sacrifice other parts of your health in order to be as good as possible at, say, running into another human.

Other people point out how 1 group seems to separate into 3. That 1 group had to be good at lots of different things, and while football was probably still a rough sport, there was no chasing of extremes.

Re: NFL players: height and weight over time

#35

Post by romanovcode »

nichochar wrote: post #27

Fasinating, reminds me of a great TED talk about this: "Are athletes really getting bigger, faster, stronger?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8COaMKbNrX0 tl;dr: no

Don't forget about steroid usage since 1950's. Even olympic athlete trainers don't hide this fact.[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIiIKB7uDCc

Re: NFL players: height and weight over time

#36

Post by jleader »

skierscott wrote: post #25
S_A_P wrote: post #10

I wonder if this has compounded the TBI and concussion issue over the years. I think sports medicine in general has gotten much better and the average player is probably bigger and stronger and thus able to hit harder than 20+ years ago...

Malcolm Gladwell has looked at this issue[1]. He sees football as being analogous to dogfighting. Popular at the time and with fans, but the science behind it is scary. I've experienced a severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), meaning I've seen many brain doctors. I have seen a neuro-omptomolgist (brain-eye doctor) who sees a football player who can't even add up his checkbook (meaning he can't add, not this his check…

I know a few people who do neuropsychological testing (testing IQ, various kinds of memory, spatial reasoning, attention, and so on). Some college athletes are now getting "before" tests, as a baseline to evaluate the severity of damage after any subsequent concussion. One tester says she's seen players attempt to do poorly on the "before" tests, so they'll be able to keep playing even after a concussion impairs their cognitive abilities.

This horrifies me more than I can describe.

Re: NFL players: height and weight over time

#37

Post by arethuza »

amiramir wrote: post #24

I'd be interested in a similar chart for rugby union where my guess is that the increase in height and weight has happened more quickly. It's just a hunch but I am guessing that overall size in rugby has increased dramatically since the sport went professional in 1995.

Here is an interesting article on the size of rugby players:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/tomfordyce/2012/03/land_of...

Re: NFL players: height and weight over time

#38

Post by lukeschlather »

romanovcode wrote: post #32
mkhaytman wrote: post #23

I'd like to see how the general population changed in the same time, then maybe a revision of this graph keeping it in perspective of how the rest of the population changed.

I don't think general population changed at all.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad347.pdf

> Conclusions: > Average weight has increased dramatically in the last 40 years with the greatest increases seen in adults. Mean BMI has also increased. Although height has also increased this increase has been much more modest.

Re: NFL players: height and weight over time

#40

Post by Zelphyr »

skierscott wrote: post #25
S_A_P wrote: post #10

I wonder if this has compounded the TBI and concussion issue over the years. I think sports medicine in general has gotten much better and the average player is probably bigger and stronger and thus able to hit harder than 20+ years ago...

Malcolm Gladwell has looked at this issue[1]. He sees football as being analogous to dogfighting. Popular at the time and with fans, but the science behind it is scary. I've experienced a severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), meaning I've seen many brain doctors. I have seen a neuro-omptomolgist (brain-eye doctor) who sees a football player who can't even add up his checkbook (meaning he can't add, not this his check…

> I'll never let my children play football.

I wish more people had this attitude.

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