With the autopsy on San Francisco 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion failing to disclose a definitive cause of death, the NFL remained in uncertainty Monday.
The Denver coroner’s office said the reason for the 23-year-old’s collapsing in the visitors’ locker room after Saturday’s preseason game at Invesco Field at Mile High and subsequent death couldn’t be determined until toxicology tests are performed.
Those normally take three to six weeks to complete.
Herrion’s agent, Frederick Lyles, said Sunday team officials told him they believed the 6-foot-3, 330-pound player died of a heart attack. ESPN reported that, according to sources, Herrion never had failed any tests for banned substances since entering the league two years ago.
Herrion’s death called into question the relationship between the ever-increasing size of NFL players and the potential risk to health inherent in such girth. As recently as 1992, there were only 67 300-pound players in the league – 10 years later that number had increased to 318.
The Broncos have 16 players on their active roster weighing at least 300 pounds. One of them, offensive tackle George Foster, said Monday he doesn’t feel his size poses any particular risk to his health.
“I don’t have any reservations about anything. It could (have happened to) anybody,” he said.
Listed at 338 pounds on the team’s preseason roster, Foster said he weighed 323 pounds Monday. The fourth-year player said he was about 290 pounds when he left high school, but his subsequent weight gain wasn’t intentional.
“I didn’t try to get 325; it was a natural progression,” Foster said. “I definitely didn’t try to do it for football. It’s just living.
“I don’t monitor it too much. I guess if I felt it was getting out of hand I guess I’d keep an eye on it, but this is just me. I’m a big guy; I have a big frame. I’d imagine if I tried to cut weight intentionally, I wouldn’t get too small.”
Arthur Roberts, a former NFL player and heart surgeon, is currently conducting a study in association with the NFL Players Association on the heart and the implications of playing the sport. Over the past two years, Roberts’ group has conducted 11 regional screenings throughout the country, testing 450 current and former players ranging in age from 27 to 65.
Hesitant to offer any definitive conclusions until the data is more thoroughly processed, which he says could come as early as next year, Roberts did say his initial impression was that, “rather than one easy answer, it’s probably going to be a combination of risk factors that will be discovered that will relate to increased cardiovascular risk, whether it shows its face while players are playing, like what occurred (Saturday night), or whether it occurs in retired players when they transition into life after football, and they’re 30, 40 or 50 years old.”
University of North Carolina nutritionist Dr. Joyce Harp looked at the heights and weights of 2,168 NFL players from the 2003-04 season and determined their body mass index (BMI). According to Harp, nearly all the players could be considered overweight, and 56 percent of them had BMIs of at least 30, considered to be obese by doctors.
The NFL downplayed the study, saying Harp’s ratio doesn’t consider muscle versus fat.
“It doesn’t take into account other factors related to cardiovascular health,” Roberts said. “Body mass index may be an increasing risk factor in players, but she doesn’t correlate body mass index with other tests or cardiovascular outcomes, like heart attacks and stroke.”
Harp did not return repeated telephone messages Monday.
Another lingering question was the possible effect playing at high altitude had on Herrion. According to experts, at altitude, the air is thinner and does not carry as much oxygen.
During exercise, this means not as much oxygen gets into the lungs and blood, heart rate increases, the athlete is quicker to fatigue, and, depending on the altitude and other factors, can get into more serious trouble with preliminary symptoms of altitude sickness.
It is said that it takes anywhere from five to seven days to become acclimated to the thinner air. It is said, for example, that opera singers who appear in Denver arrive one to two weeks before their performance to adjust to the altitude.
However, Broncos defensive lineman Luther Elliss, who grew up in Mancos, where the elevation is about 7,030 feet, said the adjustment doesn’t take as long for NFL players.
“The first time you get back in camp, doing two-a-days, you get a little winded, but you get over it quickly,” he said.
While doctors and other experts speculate for scientific reasons for exactly happened and why, Elliss chooses to seek a more simpler explanation.
“God created the perfect machine, the human body, and we’re able to adapt to a lot of things. In my honest opinion, and God bless him and his family, but I think it was just his time,” he said. “It’s just one of those things.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
