Ex-Falcon Dukes speaks up about post-NFL weight issues

Which he is doing happily this day and plans to do a lot more in the future.

“Now we share entrées as opposed to me having two of my own, plus appetizer,” Dukes confesses over his half of the sandwich and a ration of fries.

In his non-salad days, dining out would be a competitive experience for his wife, Angela, as Dukes would wolf down his meal(s) and covetously eye whatever would be left on her plate. “He wouldn’t ask, he’d just grab for it,” she chuckled.

But now he keeps to his own dinnerware, almost delicately picking at his food.

A year ago this week, Dukes, unable to change eating habits developed over a lifetime of building bulk, underwent gastric band surgery. Doctors put a restrictor plate on his appetite, an adjustable band near the top of the stomach that allowed him to fill up quicker and eat less.

Dukes, 45, figures he was closing in on 400 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame as he worked the 2008 Pro Bowl for the NFL Network, give or take a luau or two. He’s now at 290, he said. Doctors have told him 270 would be a reasonable target weight.

As well as being an analyst for the NFL Network, Dukes has become a spokesman for the company that made the Realize Adjustable Gastric Band inside him. He also is a walking case study of an obesity issue that follows many NFL players into retirement.

NFL gets bigger

Bigger is best for the modern lineman, if not for the man on the street. Dukes courted his cannonball build as he grew into an All-America lineman at Florida State and broke through with the Falcons at center in 1986 as an undrafted free agent.

So, you have a nice, long career if you’re lucky, feeding this need for size along the way. You retire, then what? Dukes playing weight was around 300 pounds, and, once he quit in 1995, he slowly, surely added weight.

“Once your body has been trained to do 40-ounce portions, you don’t tell it to go to 10 ounce portions and it won’t react (negatively),” Dukes said.

The NFL obviously has grown much wider, beating the fast food folk to the whole supersizing concept. Said Dr. Archie Roberts, a 1960s era NFL quarterback-turned-cardiologist, “I’ve seen some data that has suggested there are over 500 players in the NFL that weigh more than 300 pounds, where in my day, if you had one or two in the whole league, you were lucky.”

Roberts heads the New Jersey-based Living Heart Foundation, an organization funded through the NFL that deals with the cardiovascular fallout in building bigger players. In the last five years, the Foundation has screened 1,700 retired players and is now in the process of formulating data on the risks and courses of treatment.

A 2005 American Medical Association study of the body mass of NFL players concluded a quarter of them would be classified as obese. A 2003 New England Journal of Medicine report indicated 34 percent of NFL lineman suffered from sleep apnea (often a spin-off of being overweight), as opposed to 4 percent of the general population.

Roberts said that there are no reliable numbers to compare the death rate of NFL players to non-players. He did say that when weighing heart risk factors between retired players and Average Joes of comparable size, the players actually were at slightly less risk because of their tendency to exercise more.

Still, he said, “In my experience, there are many players that get it, that understand having that large body size is a known cardiovascular risk factor and is projected to adversely affect their longevity and quality of life.”

As well as funding Roberts work, the NFL commissioned a study on the cardiovascular health of its current players, based on a sampling of 504 active veterans in 2007. According to a league statement, the results indicated “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 greatest area of concern coming from that study, published in the Journal of the AMA in May 2009, was a significant increase in hypertension (high blood pressure) – in 13.8 percent of the players in the survey, as opposed to 5.5 percent of the general population. According to the AMA, that “has led to plans for an NFL-wide survey and in-depth investigation” of the blood pressure issue.

Reality hits home

Dukes didn’t need numbers; he just knew what he knew. He had seen friends and fellow lineman die young of conditions that he believed were based on their weight problems: Hall of Famer Reggie White at 42 (cardiac arrhythmia, respiratory disorder); and former Falcons Mel Agee at 39 (heart attack) and Tory Epps at 38 (blood clot).

“I really didn’t feel bad at 390. The problem was I knew what was coming. It was like Russian roulette,” Dukes said.

True, he had ample experience at losing. After all, he played for the Falcons eight of his 10 years (1986-93) and had enjoyed only one winning season (the combined record was 45-81-1).

But losing weight was another issue altogether. There wasn’t a diet he couldn’t beat. He’d exercise three or four times a week – still does – but the weight kept creeping up. He couldn’t resist those training table-like portions.

There had to be another solution. “It was strictly portion control,” said Angela. “I was on the (gastric band) bandwagon immediately. We had confirmation after confirmation that, you know what, this isn’t a bad idea.”

Dukes said he tolerated the surgery well – he was back on the treadmill three days afterward. He said has experienced none of the possible side effects, like nausea, constipation and acid reflux.

Now, the big, tough football player measures victories much differently these days.

His cholesterol level has fallen, and he has cut back from three blood pressure medicines to one.

Twice, he has had his collection of suits taken in. “Now when I pick up stuff for him, I have to remind myself it’s not 5 or 6XL,” Angela said.

Back on the NFL Network studio in Los Angeles, he said his good friend and former Falcon teammate Deion Sanders not long ago walked by him and didn’t immediately recognize him.

And Dukes just celebrated what was, for him, a significant achievement: On the most recent of his regular flights to L.A. from his Atlanta home, he didn’t need a seat belt extension. “It was snug, but I was able to do it,” he announced.

Here is a serial eater, a wide-body from his high school days on, who is now the picture of hopeful possibility for the lineman coming off the NFL feed lot. He is the saved fat guy, the weight-loss evangelist who has counseled other players and even met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, discussing remedies for the plus-plus-sized retired player.

“It’s one thing to have a problem, another to have a solution to go along with it,” Dukes said.

And who knew just how differently the world would see him in the process? Could it be that he has become an optical illusion onto himself?

Watching her husband on TV, Angela swears he rebuts the old truism about the camera adding 10 pounds.

“What’s funny now is that on TV, he almost looks smaller than he is,” she proudly said.