Thomas Hargrove: Scripps Howard News Service "Supersized in the NFL" January 31, 2006.

• Position: The Washington Monthly's Monthly Journalism Award - Brief article

Scripps Howard News Service

"Supersized in the NIL"

January 31,2006

During Super Bowl week, Scripps Howard published a little-noticed, but brutally clear, story. Reporter Thomas Hargrove spent months tracking down data on how long retired NFL players (most of whom spent only a year or two getting paid to play) lived after their careers had ended. The results confirmed that ex-professional football players die shockingly young, with a vast majority of the early deaths related to problems associated with obesity. It's the kind of obvious, but uncomfortable truth that the NFL has long been slow to acknowledge, and which Hargrove's diligent reporting made impossible to ignore.

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