Chapter Seven, "Living (and Dying) Large"

Living (and Dying) Large is a paper used as an example in chapter seven. This entry discusses football players and how they feel the need to be very large to excel in their sport. It states that although football requires speed and strength, the media focuses mostly on football players and their weight. NFL offensive linemen who weigh less than three hundred pounds are considered to be “undersized”. Due to this image, NFL players, and even younger football players, like high school teams, feel they should be larger as well. Because of this, they are going to unhealthy extremes to get bigger. Both the NFL players and high school players are taking legal supplements to help increase size. In turn, some of the steps they are taking are making them dehydrated. Long summer training camps do not mix well with dehydration. The increase in dehydration also increases chance of heatstroke.

I agree that all of the statements above result in a true analysis. I have seen people talk about how they need to be bigger and stronger and I have also seen the extent of which they go to as well. Football players are not the only athletes to do this. I know how it feels to be an athlete and feel like you could do better if your body was stronger or faster. I do understand that type of pressured feeling; however, I do not agree with the extent of which they go to. I also know that the media makes this problem much worse too. I don’t think athletes would feel as much pressure to be bigger or faster if it weren’t for surrounding influences. I also don’t agree about the extent some of the football players or other athletes go through to accomplish this. Athletics is not worth living the rest of your life with an unfixable health issue, or even death.