Former New Orleans Saints player Norman Hand's death has shaken some former players

At 6 feet 3 and 270 pounds, there are not many things that put fear into former New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl offensive guard Steve Korte.

But with each passing obituary, he begins to grow increasingly nervous, if not downright scared.

Ellis Lucia/The Times-PicayuneFormer New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Norman Hand's death has shook up some former players.

In the wake of the death of former Saints defensive tackle Norman Hand, who died May 14 of heart disease at the age of 37 in South Carolina, Korte said he's concerned about the life expectancy of not just himself but of current and former NFL linemen, who typically are larger than 300 pounds.

"If you think about it there are not very many great big old men," Korte said.

While Hand's death may have sounded the latest alarm, there has been warning signs for years, as the list of former NFL linemen who have died because of heart conditions or undetermined causes is growing.

The Saints certainly have had their share of tragedies.

In recent years several former Saints lineman have died from heart or weight-related issues, including Steve Trapilo, who was 39; Frank Warren, who was 39; and Tony Elliot, who was 48.

According to several studies, football linemen, who are typically classified as obese, have higher risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

"It is alarming in general when you realize what the consequences are to a lot of guys who played the game," said former Saints guard Brad Edelman, who has dropped nearly 40 pounds from his playing days and weighs 245 pounds. "On a personal level I'm not aware of having any conditions like that and my weight has not been an issue. But certainly it's an issue that a lot of guys need to be concerned about.

Former Saints lineman Frank Warren also died from heart disease.

"But it's very difficult when you have stopped playing the game and you are working in your profession to find the time to exercise. But for as many guys who are not exercising and can't find the time to exercise there are just as many who are keeping themselves in shape. It's really on an individual basis, but yes I am concerned about it for all my former players."

Local fitness guru Mackie Shilstone, who trained Hand in the early 2000s and helped the defensive tackle shed more than 30 pounds when Hand played for the Saints, said he believes that many more linemen could face a similar fate as Hand once their playing careers have ended.

Shilstone pointed to studies that showed linemen had greater instances of medical disorders, including hypertension, diabetes and heart disease to back up his assertion.

"I've been doing this for 30 years and I classify the O- and D-line with waist measurements of greater than 40 as the land of the walking dead," said Shilstone, the executive director of The Fitness Principle at East Jefferson General Hospital. "They just don't know they are dead."

Risk debated

Just as word of Hand's death was beginning to spread last weekend, doctors at Tulane Medical Center were putting the finishing touches on their planned health screening of former NFL players. The event was in partnership with a national program sponsored by the NFL Player Care Foundation and supported by the Living Heart Foundation and the American Urological Association Foundation.

Dr. Patrice Delafontaine, who led the study that screened 28 former NFL players for heart disease and prostate cancer, acknowledged that NFL linemen are at greater risk than other NFL players for future heart problems.

"In some players, particularly the linemen who are the bigger players it is a significant issue, yes," said Delafontaine, the director of the Tulane Heart and Vascular Institute. "In these linemen, compared to even other football players that are non-linemen, the incidence is really quite a lot higher. So they have an increased risk of cardiac events such as strokes, heart attacks and etc."

Still, the NFL isn't convinced that its players are at greater health risk.

As evidence, the league pointed to a study done last year by Dr. Andrew M. Tucker, a cardiologist at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.

Tucker's study said that despite being larger in size and heavier in weight, an analysis of the cardiovascular disease risk factors of about 500 NFL players found that overall, they have a similar cardiovascular risk profile compared to the general population.

The study also showed that the NFL population was found to have a lower incidence of impaired fasting glucose, and similar prevalence of abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels as compared to a sample of healthy young-adult men, but have an increased prevalence of high blood pressure.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello reissued a statement to The Times-Picayune that was released last May when Tucker's study was released.

"This study confirms that, despite their generally larger size, NFL players are at no greater overall risk for developing cardiovascular risk factors than men of the same age in the general population. The research underscores the importance of exercise and fitness given the favorable cholesterol and glucose levels of our players. We will share this information with our team medical staffs so that they can take appropriate steps to monitor blood pressure among our players.

"In addition, we will do more specific research on the blood pressure of our players under the guidance of our cardiovascular medical committee. We appreciate the work of our cardiovascular medical committee in providing our players and medical staffs with important information to help them better understand and address their risk factors for heart disease."

Staying healthy

While Hand's death is the latest among massive former NFL linemen, it's not the one Delafontaine is most familiar with.

His brother-in-law was Trapilo, the former Saints offensive guard who played for the Black and Gold from 1987-1990 and again in 1992.

Delafontaine said Trapilo struggled with staying fit after his playing days and eventually died of a heart attack while on vacation in New Hampshire in 2004.

"When he stopped playing his diet wasn't the best," Delafontaine said. "He continued to put on weight and eat, and he died of the same condition (as Hand). He died of sudden cardiac arrest at 39 years old. That clearly illustrates some of the problems that these players have, particularly after they retire and they are exercising a lot less."

In a league that almost mandates that its linemen weigh at least 300 pounds, life after football can be more dangerous than the violent hits that the players take on the gridiron.

According to the Saints roster, of the 20 offensive linemen and interior defensive linemen, only four players are listed as weighing less than 300 pounds.

But the problem isn't simply with weight, Delafontaine said, it's the type of weight an athlete carries.

"Personally, there is no problem putting on weight if it is muscle, but I would be against this idea of putting on weight and it being fat," Delafontaine said. "That's bad. And that clearly should be avoided. I'm not sure that a lineman that is 250 or 260 pounds that has a lower fat content can't be successful. I would say that they probably could be as successful as a 300-pounder."

Shilstone, who has offered to consult the NFL Players Association on health and fitness issues, agreed. But ultimately he said it is up to the players to take care of their bodies after they leave the NFL.

"The first thing that has got to happen is that the player, himself, has got to quit renting his health and take ownership of it," Shilstone said. "He needs to get counseling and help and he's going to have to do ultimate training from what's done in football because the type of training you do in football is not the type of training you can spend 15 years doing and not do something else.

"They are going to have to pay emphasis to their cardio-respiratory system which, ironically, is not really that important to playing football."

But the rigors of a long football career aren't always conducive to training and exercising after the playing days have finished, formers players said.

Knee injuries and other ailments often keep former players from running and doing other cardiovascular workouts.

Korte, though, said he isn't taking any chances. He said his weight has dropped about 10 pounds from his playing days and he talks to and visits regularly with a cardiologist.

"Who knows, I could not be here tomorrow," Korte said. "But hopefully with the stuff that I have done as far as me being very involved in the cardiovascular field, it's helped me with my diet. I've never really been heavy or overweight. I don't have diabetes. My cholesterol is really good. I watch those things all the time. It is important to me to be healthy. "Am I prolonging my life? Maybe, maybe not. You just don't know."

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Nakia Hogan can be reached at nhogan@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3405.