00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Tell me about the program that you're doing
00:05 with alumni in the NFL tackling the obesity problem.
00:08 I'll tell you one thing, real quick.
00:09 So when I had Open Heart,
00:11 they told me I had really bad apnea, 30.
00:14 And the guy said to me,
00:15 they're in charge of the NFL's apnea program
00:18 'cause a lot of the players have 22 inch necks
00:20 and they're 350 pounds and they all have sleep apnea,
00:24 literally like 95% of them.
00:26 And the guy said to me,
00:27 and I'm 6'4", 240, and the guy said,
00:30 you have it like a 350 pound lineman.
00:33 And I was a 30.
00:35 And he said, this is the reason why your heart exploded
00:38 was because of your sleeping.
00:41 And I think it all comes to a head,
00:42 like big lineman, big necks,
00:46 the weight, trying to lose that weight
00:48 when you play in the NFL, you're a big boy, Richard.
00:51 I mean, honestly, you played nine years.
00:52 Don't tell me you didn't have it going.
00:54 - Oh, absolutely.
00:55 - And when you're done, you struggle to get it off.
00:57 - Right.
00:57 - I think we all do.
00:58 - Right, and it's what we're trained to be bigger.
01:01 - You have to be.
01:02 - The saying is you never trust a lineman without girth.
01:05 So you're trained to constantly eat and eat and eat.
01:08 And it works while you're playing
01:10 because you're exercising, you're working out,
01:12 you're burning it off.
01:13 But once, it's like when you turn a car off,
01:16 you can't just start it back up, right?
01:18 So you have all these years of constant exercise
01:21 and working out regiments,
01:23 and all of a sudden it comes to a halt,
01:25 either voluntarily or involuntarily
01:27 when your career is over.
01:28 So you still eat the same.
01:29 Your appetite doesn't change, but your routine stops.
01:33 So you start gaining weight, your metabolism--
01:36 - And you're unhealthy.
01:37 - Right, then you're unhealthy.
01:38 Right, then your neck gets bigger, like you said.
01:41 I actually got a friend of mine,
01:42 I want you to meet Dr. Kevin Smith, he's here.
01:43 That's what he does.
01:44 So he helped me also,
01:46 but I'll bring him over to meet you later.
01:47 - Did you have it too?
01:48 - Yeah, I did, I did.
01:49 - Do you use the machine?
01:51 - I tried it and it didn't work,
01:52 but I had to have my tonsils taken out.
01:54 So you know what they offered me?
01:56 They said, "We have different ways that we can fix it.
01:59 "One, we can break your jaw."
02:00 I said, "Do you think that would affect my TV show
02:02 "if you broke my jaw?"
02:03 (laughing)
02:04 And then he said, "They can take your tonsils out."
02:07 I said, "Do you think that would change my great voice?"
02:10 And he said, "Yes."
02:11 I said, "I'll take the third option."
02:12 He calls me Top Gun now because I have on this pilot mask.
02:17 And I mean, I gotta tell you, it drives me nuts.
02:22 When I'm sleeping at night,
02:23 I hate this thing, I'm moving it around.
02:25 I can tell I'm sleeping and I'm moving it around
02:27 and it drives me nuts.
02:29 But how depressing is it when you play
02:34 and you have that weight and you have,
02:37 when you're done, have to get it off and you can't.
02:41 And that struggle within mentally and physically
02:45 is a mother-forever.
02:46 It's hard to deal with.
02:47 Like it bums you out, doesn't it?
02:49 - Well, with me, it was just the opposite.
02:51 I kept my weight down and then when I retired from the game
02:54 over a period of time, I got up like 330 pounds
02:57 and it was not healthy.
03:00 - Brutal.
03:00 - Yeah, and it takes a lot of willpower.
03:04 It takes a lot of talking to yourself a lot
03:07 because you go through all sorts of mental things
03:11 about yourself and what you like
03:14 and don't like about yourself.
03:15 But what I found out is if your family members
03:18 or your spouse or whomever that's close to you
03:22 will be honest with you, be upfront with you,
03:25 you got a better chance of getting it off
03:26 rather than saying you're all right.
03:28 - You're fine.
03:29 You don't look bad.
03:30 Did it affect your, 'cause it had to have,
03:33 like your breathing, when you were carrying
03:36 that weight around, that's like exhausting.
03:39 Just dealing with it, being 330 is exhausting.
03:43 - Try being 430.
03:44 (upbeat music)
03:47 (bells chiming)
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