ARLINGTON, Texas — Casey Hampton is listed at 325 pounds. The way his jersey stretches tautly across his biceps (and belly) suggests the real number is north of that.
Asked for his actual weight, the Steelers nose tackle said: “It’s 300 and change. Lots of change.”
Hampton is one of 26 players on the Green Bay and Pittsburgh Super Bowl rosters who tip the scale at more than 300 pounds — an eye-popping number made even more startling when you put it in historical context.
Green Bay’s first Super Bowl team, 45 years ago, didn’t have a guy heavier than 265 pounds.
Meanwhile, Mean Joe Greene, at 275 pounds, was the biggest player on the Steelers when they won their second of six championships in 1976.
All this largesse was roundly joked about and brushed off during Super Bowl media day Tuesday — as good a day as any to celebrate all the excesses that America’s favorite sport has to offer. But it also brings up some uncomfortable questions. Namely: How did these guys all get so big, and could any of this really be good for them?
“In terms of food, yeah, they eat tons of food during their careers and they get very big,” said dietitian Michele Macedonio, who has worked for the Bengals. “And if they don’t do something to get back to their healthful weight, their rate of disease is very high.”
As for those who are using more than food, well, that’s a statistic that almost certainly won’t ever be properly measured.
The supplement creatine helps stimulate muscle growth and has long been considered an integral part of any NFL player’s bodybuilding regimen. But even that has its limits, while the growth rate of the players — even more noticeable while walking among them on media day when they’re not covered in shoulder pads and helmets — has been more or less exponential.
According to stats provided by Stats LLC, there was one 300-pound player in the league in 1970, three in 1980, 94 in 1990, 301 in 2000 and 394 at the start of last season.
In their media guide, the Packers boast nose tackle Howard Green “brings size and bulk to the interior of the defensive front at 6-foot-2, 340 pounds.”
He’s really more like 355 pounds. A 15-pound discrepancy. A drop in the bucket.
“That’s cool for right now,” Green said. “I could do better, but I’ve got to do what I do for right now. You can’t go into depletion mode in the middle of the season. You’ll be weak.”
