Has he watched a game? (link)
...the raft of health issues that come with being obese, which -- let's face it -- the NFL basically requires most players to be.
Forget the requiring part--most NFL players are obese?
I have always wondered if Gladwell actually knows what he is talking about half the time or if he just strings together interesting stories to reach forced conclusions. He may read sports, but I don't think he watches.
actually...
With all the muscle on
With all the muscle on football players these days, which translates to weight, I agree, Gladwell is right (by the BMI.) LeBron is obese by the BMI too, FWIW.
true
If he was saying that being heavy as a result of muscle mass lowers life expectancy (in the same way as being extremely fat) than I missed his point and he is right.
BMI is the common metric for identifying obese people, but clinically speaking obesity is excess body fat. Saying someone is "technically obese" gets it exactly right; Lebron is obese by BMI definition, but is not suffering from obesity.
But it may be that BMI-obesity shortens lives in which case he's right and I wasted your time.
Gladwell....
...is one of the smartest people in American popular culture. He is a brilliant mind, and his thoughts in other places of the article you linked to (about professional drafts flying in the face of behavioral science) are interesting and worth discussing.
And what NFL games do you watch that don't have obese football players?
I agree. He's very smart to
I agree. He's very smart to be able to write essentially the same book three times and still dupe people into buying each one.
I take it .....
... you've read all three and can accurately vouch for the books?
I have read them, but I won't
I have read them, but I won't vouch for them. I wouldn't spend money on them. They're all just fluffy little books with little to no original research, dubious citations (Wikipedia is one of his favorite sources), and heavy use of anecdotes to prove vague conclusions. The last one (Outliers) is the worst yet. Some of its arguments are unintentionally hilarious - like his claim that Asians are the best at math because "numbers are easy to pronounce in Chinese."
Not for me, man
Fucking tones!
Where's Charlie Bauman when you need him?
yep. most are obese. obese
yep. most are obese. obese isn't always bad. shaq is obese, but not fat. he just has 300 pounds of muscle! 0_0
"Ohio is like a giant turd that Michigan just can't pinch off"
you're kidding
right? shaq is not all muscle, not even close
I'm not going to call
I'm not going to call Gladwell a genius in anything except maybe writing. All of his books are essentially explanations of other people's work. Mostly, he takes psychological studies and gives them real-world applications. He is a good story teller.
Gladwell is spot on. 99% of
Gladwell is spot on. 99% of retired OLinemen are fat and not healthy.
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” - Benjamin Franklin
Isn't like 1/2 of America
considered obese? Big deal, then. I'm sure the % of OL considered obese is probably around the same percentage of Americans.
Also, this is an example of where BMI does not apply. It should not be used for athletes, since it assumes an average amount of muscle and only takes height and weight into account.
As someone else pointed out, a guy like Shaq, or any body builder would be considered obese.
"They're stuck with that quarterback (sophomore Braxton Miller) for the next two or three years, that's fine with me. He throws worse than (Tim) Tebow. - Steve Everitt
Uh.....
....I highly doubt that the percentage of O-Linemen that are obese is equal to the American population.
And that is because of what you wrote in paragraphs 2 and 3.
I am tempted to argue that at least 95% of NFL O-Linemen are obese.
BMI is crap in general.
BMI is crap in general. Basically, the taller you are, the more likely you are to be overweight because of the dumb algorithm it uses. It doesn't take into account the fact that bone and muscle (which taller people have more of) weigh more than fat. In reality, a 6-foot person with a BMI of 25 is probably far healthier than a 5-foot person with the same BMI.
shaq
is obese and more often than not, fat. ALL NFL OL are also fat. you really think that weight is all muscle?
You realize that the immense
You realize that the immense number of health issues that football players - particularly linemen - suffer is a result of their sheer mass - not the composition of that mass. It's not good for your joints or heart to cram 350 pounds onto your frame, no matter if it's blubber or muscle.
Any player
that plays at the point of attack has a ton of excess weight, period. The life expectancy statistics bear out that these players put an incredible strain on their hearts to carry that sort of weight around. Frankly, that was one of the more undebatable and obvious things Gladwell mentioned in the article.
If you want to criticize, I think there's room for criticism re: his point that the draft reduces the incentives for risk-taking in style of play (at the NFL level). That's not true. Given the out-of-line money being paid to top picks, one would think that teams aren't being "less risky on the field" because they can secure a top pick (the moral hazard argument). The reason coaches are less innovative isn't because they know they will be rewarded for sucking by getting a top pick - it's because the media/ownership/fans are so conventional in their thinking, that a coach loses job security if he tries anything unconventional, even if it technically increases his chance of winning (no punting, for instance). In fact, IF the draft provided an incentive to losing (i.e. the insurance point), one would expect MORE risks (innovation). Basically, his argument that "coaches are OK with losing because they are rewarded with high drafts, and therefore they don't take risks that might help them win" confuses the point - coaches in that scenario would be more risk-taking. They aren't because of social conventions and media/ownership pressure.
at least my thread became educational
I think most of the disagreement on this thread stems from different uses of terminology. To be clear:
It seems clear that most Mgobloggers use the word obese to mean "obese according to BMI" i.e. heavier than average for your height. If Gladwell meant it that way he was right. If he meant clinically obese his "most" statement was false, as only 7 of 22 positions afford you the chance to carry fat rolls in the NFL. In the interest of harmony, I will defer to the majority readership, assume he meant it the first way, and never again defame his sacred name.
he's absolutely correct. ALL NFL linemen are obese, notice he didn't say "fat" but obese. that comes from your body mass index. gladwell is right.
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