CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii linemen Daniel Tautofi, Daniel Johnson and Reagan Mauia completed conditioning runs after practice this week.

Too big?

The death of San Francisco 49ers
lineman Thomas Herrion after
a game Saturday has made some
Hawaii Warriors think about
whether their weight puts them
at risk of death

Reagan Mauia, like most other football players, doesn't scare easily.

But he was almost shaking yesterday when asked about Thomas Herrion after Hawaii's practice. Herrion, an offensive lineman trying to make the San Francisco 49ers, collapsed and died after a preseason game Saturday.

The 6-foot-3, 330-pound 23-year-old's cause of death remains unknown after an autopsy. But doctors say it probably has something to do with his weight -- which may be an occupational hazard for football players, especially linemen.

Mauia and Herrion never met. But Mauia, a 325-pound junior defensive lineman, said he has thought about him often since Saturday.

"Of course, man, of course. It's scary. It's a scary thing to think about, but important," Mauia said. "Linemen, we don't have a very long lifespan. The heavier you get, the closer you are to (death). I looked at that and it kind of kicked in reality for me."

Mauia weighed 372 pounds last month. He began losing weight to get in shape to play for the Warriors.

"I want to get down to 3-flat for the USC game," he said.

Now an even more important reason to lose weight has been reinforced. Actually two reasons: his wife, Rebekah, and son, Reagan II.

When Mauia is done with football, he plans to shed even more pounds.

"I want to live as long as I can," Mauia said. "Me and my wife talked about it. Whenever I get done with football it's time to really get healthy. There's no need to be big after football. Why?"

Mauia said it will be a challenge to keep the weight off, because he loves rice. But Rebekah will help him stay healthy, because "she's the best" when it comes to preparing nutritional and tasty meals, he said.

Freshman offensive lineman Daniel Johnson also said Herrion's death caught his attention. Johnson is 6-feet-3 and 295 pounds. He said his goal is to gain weight and get "stronger and quicker" so he can eventually earn a starting position. But he has a strategy to do it safely.

"Ultimately the key is to be healthy. Eating the right things and gaining the right kind of weight," he said. "I make sure I'm getting the right calories, right protein and I'm eating at the right time of the day. I make sure I gain muscle the right way and don't eat at night and have it go to fat.

"I've always been focused on my nutritional balance," Johnson said.

UH defensive line coach Vantz Singletary can't say the same, but he's definitely improved his eating and workout habits in recent years. He weighed 385 pounds in 1999, his first season at UH. Singletary, 39, is now holding relatively steady at 275.

"I've eliminated a lot of fried food and run drill to drill at practice. I try to cut out all the sugar drinks and eat more salads and whole grains," Singletary said.

"You can go out and run 3 miles, go back and eat the wrong food and go backward," Singletary added.

"My goal was to never go back over 300. I've accomplished that, but I'd like to get down to 250."

All UH players must go through a complete physical examination before they are cleared to practice.

"I'm glad they do that," Mauia said. "They showed me a couple things I didn't know. They take really good care of us here. They test your heart, they run background checks, see if anyone in your family has heart problems, stuff like that."

Johnson said he didn't consider the testing an inconvenience.

"I want to make sure everything's right," he said.

Seven players on the UH roster are listed at more than 300 pounds, and several more are at least 290. Many are technically classified as overweight or obese, but the body mass index (BMI) used by the U.S. Department of Health does not take into account that most athletes are heavy because of muscle.

UH strength and conditioning coach Mel deLaura said big young men who play football are generally healthier than those who do not.

"Very few (football players) drop dead because they're out of shape," deLaura said. "It's always something else. Something that goes under the radar that you never notice."

Coach June Jones said he doesn't remember any deaths in the NFL when he was playing or coaching in the league.

"I'm sure there were some when I was growing up," Jones said. "They didn't let us drink water and they made us take salt pills. And nobody dies. It kind of makes you wonder what's going on.

"I feel terrible for the 49ers and the family of the young man. But that can happen while you're driving down the street," Jones said. "I do know if you're in shape and in good conditioning that kind of thing is less likely to happen."

The most recent death of an NFL player apparently resulting from practice or a game before Herrion was when the Vikings' Korey Stringer died of heat complications during training camp in 2001. Stringer's death reinforced the importance of drinking water during workouts, especially in the heat.

Football players are always trying to gain or lose pounds as they strive for the ideal physique for their job on the field. Even if his demise was due to bad genetics or fate, the death of Thomas Herrion has increased awareness of football's weighty issues, at least temporarily.

"Nobody said anything, but I know guys think about it, especially the heavy guys," deLaura said. "Something like that, you just never know."