107 replies to this topic

[whelpley]

I haven't read the ESPN mag article yet, but they were talking on ESPN radio today about a big story in the latest issue on David Boston and his unbelievable work out and nutritional habits. The guy weighs something 265 now, but not an ounce of fat on him (weighed 235 or somethign like that last year). He runs the 40 in 4.3, but San Diego wants to get him down to 235 for the season. He told them he doesn't want to trim down and he thinks he could get up to 280!!! Now, the question is, will his physique actually help his production this year? The chances are pretty good that he is on somethign illegal, so what are the chances he gets caught and has to sit out some games?

[S.K.A.]

Uhhh, I think what happened is either the radio host made a mistake or you misheard them. Boston is at 245 not 265.

[MotherTucker16]

Wide Load
By Tom Friend
ESPN The Magazine

This story appears in the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine, on newstands this week. To get more from The Magazine, check out ESPNMag.com.

What's going on in Room 614? There's a man in there, a he-man, actually, listening to ocean music. There are syringes and needles in boxes and IV bags in the closet. There are registered nurses knocking on the door and chiropractors coming and going, and a personal trainer carrying in a backpack full of pills. A backpack that some people would love to inspect.


What's going on in Room 614? There's an overgrown wide receiver in there. "Dude, you're on steroids!" fans yell at him at training camp. A lot of NFL players and coaches think he's on something, but the term they use is yoked up. "Gotta be," says an NFC defensive back. The receiver keeps testing clean (seven times last season), but his peers are still suspicious. They can't prove it, but they think he's on something they don't have a test for yet, maybe human growth hormone (HGH), and one reason is the size of his head.

"Look, even his face is growing," the player goes on. "He's bloated. His cheekbones have changed." Guys around the league just don't see how his weight could jump from 209 to 257 in three years. Or how he can have 21-inch biceps, a 34-inch waist and 5.5% body fat. Or how he can run the 40 in 4.3 seconds. Or how the sorry Cardinals could let such a physical specimen walk. Or how 30 other teams could let the Chargers scoop him up as a free agent for only 47 mil.

No, there's got to be something going on in that room. Something to keep Arizona from franchising him, something to scare off the rest of the league. "We didn't even have him on our board," says a Redskins exec, whose team needed a receiver this winter and opted to pay Laveranues Coles a $13 million signing bonus. Laveranues Coles? He's half this guy's size and doesn't run any faster.

But few trust him. They hear all the stories. How he eats only in his personal trainer's room, Room 614 at the Hilton Carson Civic Plaza in Carson, Calif. How Hall of Famer Joe Greene, an assistant coach on his old team, wonders if he'll live to 30. How he's paying his personal trainer $200K a year. How, even though he's rooming with LaDainian Tomlinson, he's holed up most of the time in Room 614. Holed up and getting heavier every day.

"Have you seen that guy? Our D-line coach calls him Robocop," says Chargers defensive end Marcellus Wiley. "If any of us defensive linemen go down, he's going two-way. I mean, 260 pounds, 5% body fat, a 4.3 40? That's 30 sacks. Every day in the cafeteria, I walk past the fried foods and say, 'I am David Boston.' That way, I won't eat them. I want to look just like David Boston."

But that's the problem: David Boston doesn't look like David Boston.

"I give him 'til Halloween." -Arizona Cardinals official

The consensus in Arizona is that he'll break down, that his ankles are too thin to carry that load, that he's too massive for the ligaments on his sprinter legs. The consensus is that the patella tendon in his right knee -- the one that burst last season -- will burst again. And that will be that. He'll be a bodybuilder. Or a model.

"Well," Boston says, "I'd rather be explosive at 250 for 8 to 10 years than be 230 for 13 years."

Somewhere, Boston became body-mass first, everything else second. Maybe it started after he broke his left scapula as a rookie in 1999 and decided he needed more meat on him. Or maybe it was the car accident a year later, when a drunk driver slammed into his Hummer at high speed, killing herself and rearranging Boston's body. Or maybe it was when a chiropractor examined him six months after the accident, noticed lingering nerve damage in his foot and weakness in his lower back and said, "Your body's for s --."

Whatever, he's undergone a makeover that few believe is aboveboard. A makeover on and off the field that ultimately contributed to the Cardinals' decision to run their prize possession out of town. "Man, we've taken a lot of hits for doing it," says Greene. "But once in a while I'd like to hear that maybe we weren't wrong."

Arizona staffers roll their eyes when they hear Boston's name now, but it wasn't always that way. When the Cardinals saw him at training camp in 2001 -- his body fat down from 11% to 6%, his weight up from 209 to 238 -- they were thrilled. He was still fast enough to outrun Oakland's Charles Woodson on a 50-yard score that season, and no one dared jam him at the line. "DBs got scared of me," Boston says. By year's end, he led the NFL with a team-record 1,598 yards on 98 catches and had everybody at the Pro Bowl staring. "Brian Urlacher kept going, 'How are your arms bigger than mine?'" Boston says.

But a month later, Boston tested positive for cocaine and marijuana after a DUI arrest. He pleaded no-contest to two misdemeanors, and his world changed. Now the Cardinals began to notice his idiosyncrasies. He'd mumble. He'd show up with his eyebrow pierced, his tongue pierced, his upper earlobe pierced, his nipples pierced. He'd hang with only one teammate, running back Thomas Jones.

The 2002 season was Boston's contract year, but there was little goodwill between him and the franchise. In practice one day, he asked the DBs not to hit him hard because otherwise his shoulder pads would pinch his nipple piercings. Boston says he doesn't remember that, but Cardinals coaches and players confirm it. "He was like, don't hit me in the chest," says wide receiver Jason McAddley. "The coach was like, what the hell?"

The low point came the night before a game in Seattle, in the second week of the season. During bed check, Greene says, a coach found a woman in Boston's room. When the woman was asked to leave, Boston's response was, "If she goes, I don't play. I'll come down with an injury." So the girl stayed. And Boston played. "Putting your personal needs in front of the team," says Greene, "that's not an environment I grew up in."

Boston says he doesn't remember that incident, either, but some Cardinals coaches felt he was never focused again. "Who knew what was going on in his world?" says a member of the front office. "Or what he was ingesting." The team just didn't trust the supplements he was on. His weight had climbed into the 240s, he'd get winded after four or five plays and he was muffing passes. Some coaches felt he was so muscle-bound that he couldn't extend his arms, that he was trying to catch everything against his body.

"People who say that stuff are haters," says Jones, now with the Buccaneers. "There were a lot of guys who didn't like me and David."

The team felt Boston was caught up in his new image. Like when he'd put lotion on his arms before games so his biceps would glisten. Or when he'd show off shirtless photos of himself to women. One day, reserve quarterback Preston Parsons noticed a pleasant aroma in the locker room and said, "What's that smell?" Boston told him, "My hygiene is unbelievable." Dead serious.

Boston would show up with different colored contacts -- blue ones, red ones, purple ones -- and people would walk away confused by his look. "When I wear the red ones, people think I'm stoned," he says. "I'm a different kind of cat, aren't I?" Says Wiley, "I went up to talk to him after a game two years ago, and he had, like, purple eyes. And I said, 'Okay, a little Melrose in you.'"

Boston never finished the 2002 season. His right patella tendon, already slightly torn coming into the year, snapped when a 49ers defensive back nailed him directly on the knee last October. He hobbled through the next game, then had season-ending surgery. It was still assumed the Cardinals would place the franchise tag on him, but owner Bill Bidwill declined. The DUI arrest and his erratic behavior had sealed his fate.

Greene's explanation as to why Arizona let Boston walk: "Fear. Fear of him repeating not his Pro Bowl year, but the year after. To keep him, you'd have to make a serious commitment to him financially, and that was scary. That was scary."

San Diego got Boston's first -- and last -- free agent visit. The Chargers brass had done a background check with the league office, and while the Cardinals assumed Boston would be suspended for the cocaine incident, San Diego was told not to worry. "We did a lot of due diligence," says Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer. Atlanta, Baltimore and the Jets had all invited Boston, but the Chargers never let him get out of town. Schottenheimer assured him that with Tomlinson, defenses wouldn't be able to double-team him, and Boston was sold, settling for just a $4million signing bonus.

"I know one thing," says Greene. "The coach he's with right now ain't gonna tolerate anything. And I don't think I'm slinging mud at David, either. I like David. But I was disappointed in his behavior last year. It was beyond disappointment. It was painful." "It's not like I just fall out of bed and look like this." -David Boston

There's got to be an explanation. His father, Byron, says his son is too good a kid, from too good a family, to be hearing these whispers. Byron is a respected NFL line judge who's worked a Super Bowl, and his wife, Carolyn, is a retired teacher. One of David's grandfathers was a radiation biophysicist. One great-grandfather was a minister for 51 years. The other great-grandfather and a great-uncle were dentists. His great aunt is a college professor. His sister, Alicia, is an attorney, and his brother, Byron Jr., is a cop working for the Dallas drug task force. And then there's David: the football player and family rebel, the one who had to be hounded by his mother into doing his homework at Humble High School, northeast of Houston. Football set him apart. His first two years in high school, he relied on speed, not brawn -- until he shot up five inches and gained 40 pounds the summer before his junior year. He was fascinated by his new size, and by the confidence it gave him. At 18, he caught the winning touchdown for Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. At 20, he turned pro. But the NFL was full of hard bodies, and after that auto accident, he needed an edge. And so his chiropractor referred him to a Canadian bodybuilder named Charles Poliquin.

Poliquin, known for bulking up hockey players and bobsledders, set two primary goals for Boston: reduce his insulin levels with a low-carb, high-protein diet and vitamin supplements, and raise his growth hormone levels with vigorous workouts to build muscle. There would be blood tests to monitor it all, and there would be 90-minute IV drips of magnesium and minerals to help his body recover. ("I lay there during these drips and listen to trance music, you know, ocean music," Boston says.) It was all done away from his teammates, which is why, when he showed up at Cardinals camp bigger and faster in 2001, the rumors about HGH started spreading.

"Blah, blah, blah," says Poliquin, who's based in Tempe, Ariz. "As a 25-year-old guy, David produces more growth hormone than he could buy in a store. An intense workout will boost your growth hormone nine times above normal levels. You'd have to shoot yourself up with a week's supply of HGH to equate one workout. People say he's on drugs. Food, if used properly, is a drug. So, yeah, he's on drugs. He buys 'em at Safeway."

Researchers agree that exercise increases growth hormone levels, but they say it's unlikely an athlete could gain 50 pounds of muscle through workouts, food and supplements alone. Boston didn't want to hear that. He told Poliquin he wanted a full-time trainer, someone to tell him what to eat and when to eat it. So Poliquin referred him to one of his colleagues, a former Canadian Olympic bobsledder named Ian Danney. Originally from Guyana, Danney is foremost a speed trainer. But he's also a former biochemistry major at the University of Alberta who, says Poliquin, is using biomechanics to advance his theories. Boston asked Danney to train him, and Danney agreed -- and walked right into the rumor mill.

Boston made it clear during contract talks with Chargers GM A.J. Smith that he and Danney were a package deal. At Schottenheimer's request, Boston promised to work out twice a week at the team facility, but he otherwise wanted to be free to train alone with his guy. "We're flexible," Smith says. "It all worked out."

But a handful of Charger players and coaches are already curious about Danney, who often stands with his backpack on the fringe of the Chargers' practice field. The truth is, other than at meetings and practices, Boston and Danney are inseparable. Boston still sleeps in the room he shares with Tomlinson. He signs in every day at the team cafeteria, but then he's off to see what organic food Danney has for him. It's Danney who organizes Boston's day. It's Danney who brings in the registered nurses for the post-practice IV drips. It's Danney who has Boston take an average of 90 pills a day. And it's Danney who does the hormone and insulin testing in Room 614. Even though Schottenheimer and Smith say they're unconcerned, the accusations come anyway. They come from a strength coach who used to work with Poliquin: "I started to question it this past year because I've compared pictures of David in 2001 to now. And his cheekbones have changed." (Doctors say excessive amounts of HGH, which is legally available only from a physician, can induce elongation of the jaw muscle.) They come from current and former NFL players who assume a 6'2" wideout can't outweigh Lennox Lewis. "David works hard," says wide receiver Rob Moore, Boston's former teammate, "but who wouldn't get suspicious?"

"I hear this all the time," says Boston. "People question me because my physique is totally different from everybody else's in the league. What am I supposed to do? I pass every drug test. I eat the right things. I work out hard. And when I sign a big contract, instead of buying a Benz, I move my trainer out here. Some people go to the movies; I like to lift weights and run. All I care about is my body. I take hot and cold contrast baths to flush my system out. I pay five grand to have a doctor test every pill I take. I watch my calorie intake. I take antioxidants. I eat egg whites and cottage cheese, lean steak with asparagus, protein shakes before and after practice, sushi and simple carbs at night like blueberries. I eat six, seven meals a day. Yeah, I'm over 250. But I'll be 240 on opening day. I can lose weight any time I want."

But he can gain it, too. How big can he get? He sits in Room 614 and thinks about it. "Maybe 290," he says. "It wouldn't be for football, but give me a year and I could get to 290."

His eyes widen. They're purple today.

[Homer J Simpson]

Wow. That boy ain't right.

[ianweymouth]

I used to think Boston was just freak of nature, but now I think he is taking all kinds of funky growth ####. I wouldn't be surprised to see his ankles go.

[Slider]

Nice story but I just shake my head. It's truly not normal to understand what this guy is doing. He could be doing absolutely nothing wrong but you'd be a fool not to question or be suspicous of it. , I can't figure it out....

[Facecow]

I don't care what he's on. The guy's a damn machine.

I'm curious to see how things pan out in SD this season.

[Slider]

Cool, 35 guys reading the same story.

[{Syrus}]

David Boston, the next Dwight Freeney?? Marcellus Wiley better shape up or D. Boston might be pushing him for playing time, LOL.

Seriously, Boston is a special WR. The article says he will be down to 240 lbs. on opening day. I'll give Boston enough credit to know where his weight needs to be to perform well. Nobody wants Boston to succeed more than David Boston.

[PocketPasser]

Wow.  That boy ain't right.

LMAO I think one of those 90 pills must be Purple Haze

[whelpley]

I am not sure how to take this story. Just because he is fast and strong doesn't mean he will put up unbelievable numbers and the injury risk factor seems pretty high. He is going to make some sick highlights sometime this season, though. I can't wait to see him mow down a couple linebackers on his way to the end zone. I probably won't draft him, but his presence definatley cements LT in my mind as the #1 overall pick.

[Crocodile]

Shouldn't LT have his own room? :huh:

[EastBayFunk]

I really wonder about this guy. I'm definitely skeptical about his long term future in the NFL.

[vitaflo]

If he really is gaining that much weight, something is going on, that's just not normal, I don't care what the workout. More likely than not, if his face is changing, he's on HGH. It would explain a lot, the bulk, the low body fat, the face change.

Also, if he his on HGH or something similar, look for a LOT more injuries. That stuff bulks you up, but also makes you prone to injury. This I gather has already started w/ his knees. And while big size is good for a reciever, he should be more worried about strength than bulk, which are two separate things.

If you compare this story to proffesional wrestlers, there are a lot of similarities, it's almost frightening. It's either a matter of time before he gets caught or gets a very serious injury.

Or perhaps he really is a freak of nature. If so

But somehow I doubt it.

[EastBayFunk]

I'm curious about the face change. Could someone find some before and after pictures of the guy?

[harrison74]

Wow. I finish this story wondering what Boston is spending more time doing: football or bodybuilding. I have a feeling that he will always have some lingering injury that will keep him from playing full time. The article also paints him as a loner and malcontent. You get the feeling San Diego is weary of this experiment already....

[vitaflo]

Didn't he also shave his head this year? Another sign of HGH is a receding hair line. Shaving his head would be smart if that was happening. This is why wrestlers like Steve Austin and Kurt Angle have shaved heads, because the HGH they take to bulk up has receded their hair (same thing happend to Hogan).

In fact, the only wrestler I know who is not on some sort of roids or HGH is John Cena, who has perhaps the best food/workout ethic of anyone, and he's only 240. He could never get to 275 in a year, he's worked his whole life to get to 240 naturally. Yet Boston is saying he could go up 35 lbs (265-290) in a year? No way, not without "help".

[whelpley]

No, I think he could legitimately gain 30 - 40 pounds in a year. Haven't you ever seen that Simpsons where Homer wants to gain weight so that he could go on disability? All you to do is wrap a pancake around a stick of butter for breakfast...maybe a couple hundred donughts for lunch, etc.

[XNOUGHT]

Boston is Fools Gold.

All the hints and clues are there. But the greed of FF addicts will be attracted to him.

[BustDaBookie]

You obviously know nothing about bobybuilding. It is indeed possible to naturally gain or lose over 40 lbs in a year w/o help. Bobybuilding is 80% diet 20 % pushing weights. Maybe Boston shaved his head b/c he wanted too... There are pleanty of guys that shave their heads these days. And not too be stereotypical, but there aren't many ways a black man can wear his hair (shave or braided in the summer, fro in the winter). However, I do believe MR. Boston's liver must be taken some kind of damage if he is consuming 90 pills a day. In fact many Russian bodybuilders and personal trainers whom I know can drop or gain 40 lbs in a month just b/c their diet is so good and clean. I highly doubt he is on HGH.

[{Syrus}]

In fact many Russian bodybuilders and personal trainers whom I know can drop or gain 40 lbs in a month just b/c their diet is so good and clean.

I was agreeing with you right up until this statement.

[switz]

I was agreeing with you right up until this statement.

I dunno, when I was in HS I was friends with a kid who dropped 18 lbs in one week. He was a wrestler, and needed to drop to a lower weight class.

[joffer]

I dunno, when I was in HS I was friends with a kid who dropped 18 lbs in one week. He was a wrestler, and needed to drop to a lower weight class.

sure, Matthew Modine did it to wrestle the "Shute"

[{Syrus}]

I dunno, when I was in HS I was friends with a kid who dropped 18 lbs in one week. He was a wrestler, and needed to drop to a lower weight class.

I can buy dropping 18 lbs. of water in one week as it's common among wrestlers. But gaining or losing 40 lbs. in one month? I suppose it's possible, but I've never heard of it.

I'd buy losing 40 lbs. in one month if you weighed a sloppy 550 lbs. to begin with and you go on the Adkins Diet for the month or something. But then again I am no sports trainer so take my opinion as just that---an opinion, and not the most knowledgable about weight gain/loss at that.

[Sinrman]

The only question I have is "WHY?" Why in the world would he WANT to be that big? Is he going to try and switch to TE or something!? Does he feel like he has to be twice as big as any DB in the NFL and push them around easier? It's nuts...

[vitaflo]

You obviously know nothing about bobybuilding.  It is indeed possible to naturally gain or lose over 40 lbs in a year w/o help.  Bobybuilding is 80% diet 20 % pushing weights.  Maybe Boston shaved his head b/c he wanted too...  There are pleanty of guys that shave their heads these days.  And not too be stereotypical, but there aren't many ways a black man can wear his hair (shave or braided in the summer, fro in the winter).  However, I do believe MR. Boston's liver must be taken some kind of damage if he is consuming 90 pills a day.  In fact many Russian bodybuilders and personal trainers whom I know can drop or gain 40 lbs in a month just b/c their diet is so good and clean.  I highly doubt he is on HGH.

I can see gaining or losing if you're talking about gaining or losing fat. But Boston has virtually none. I mean really, gaining 40lbs of muscle? In a year? It seems he's been gaining a ton every year. Even for profesional body builders that seems abnormal.

I'm not ruling out that he is one of the VERY few true freaks of nature in the world, but the odds are against him. 99% of the time that kind of pure muscle mass bulk is attributed to chemical influence. I do hope he's legit though as he's the #1 reciever on my fantasy team, I just have my doubts.

[BustDaBookie]

I hope so too. I have no idea whether or not he is natural, I was just throwing out the fact that it is possible and roids don't have to be the contributing factor.

And yes it usually is fat that these bodybuilders are losing when they lose 40 lbs in a month.

Also if you have ever lifted for more than 6 months steady you should know that once you get results you are hooked. And all you want is too eb stronger and bigger (it is almost like a DRUG in itself)

[ExtraPoint]

I cant blame Boston for what he's doing. Even if his football career suddenly ends, he'll make good money doing other things. There is no shortage of demand for guys like that.

I do worry about his knees and other joints. I also expect him to have the occassional muscle strain. You got it right though when you say the guy is going to be on highlight films. He's going to be there. He'll get lots of TV time. He'll get more media coverage than he'll care for. He'll get endorsement opportunities. He'll probably make a special appearance in the WWF. He's going to have to big fantasy games too. Even with the added injury risk he's worth a high draft pick.

I'm a bit of a health nut. .I dont neccessarily think he's doing something illegal. If you take your diet and exercise programs that seriously you can do wonders to yourself without any expensive supplements or personal trainers or doctors. You wont look like Boston but you'll do wonders. They may make some of the products he's currently taking illegal but then some company always comes out with a legal alternative. If he's paying 5k to have each pill checked out he's probably doing everything by the book... even if parts of his program will force the NFL to change their books.

[das machina]

Frankly Boston is starting to sound like a guinea pig to me. I wonder if he knows anything that is really going on with his body, seems like he is just saying what the people that are doing this to him are saying. Does he know th long term impact of this or anything else that comes with it? I'm not a health expert but it seems to me someone over 250 should not run a 4.3 all the time. It's like a car that goes so fast, sooner or later something is going to break down... a tire or something else. As already somewhat proven as he couldn't get through last year and still has been having nagging injuries. Sure he looks great right now, he is super human almost. But my question is what about a month to a year down the road? Legs that are sprinter speed, shouldn't have to hold that much weight, especially when your practicing and going full speed in games. To me it seems bound for disaster sooner or later, and does he have any respect for rules.. doesn't seem like it. I personally liked Boston a lot last year but all this info has me thinking a lot more about him.

[vitaflo]

Also if you have ever lifted for more than 6 months steady you should know that once you get results you are hooked.  And all you want is too eb stronger and bigger (it is almost like a DRUG in itself)

Yeah, I understand the drive, but I also understand the plateaus. I know when you start building you can gain a lot right away, but at a certain time you need to work harder than normal to add the same amount of weight.

Same with losing weight. You can lose 20 lbs easy, but you must work 3 times as hard to lose the next 20. And so on.

The problem I have w/ Boston is not that he's gained so much weight in one year, it's that he's been *consistantly* gaining a large amount of weight and talks as if there's no end in sight. This is what concerns me.

You are 100% right about getting hooked on weight gain (or loss). Once you are hooked it totally takes over you life. I just hope Boston is thinking about catching passes as much as he is about working his biceps.

[BustDaBookie]

I agree. I would however like to play the other side and note that in the MR. Olympia prior to steroids, the winner never had 20+ arms. I believe 17-18 were tops on all the winners.

So who knows...

I am sure 20+ may be possible with todays supps, but I don't know.

[Dog]

Besides all this when thinking about Boston is that he's playing for SHOTTENHEIMER. He could weigh 300 pounds and run a 3.9 40 and LT2 would still get the ball 30 times/game.

[Crocodile]

Besides all this when thinking about Boston is that he's playing for SHOTTENHEIMER.  He could weigh 300 pounds and run a 3.9 40 and LT2 would still get the ball 30 times/game.

Ah, LT . . .

Please post this in the Talk Me Out Of Clinton Portis thread.

[Hobbes]

Can anyone say the "Big 4 Tight Ends"?

[vitaflo]

Actually now that I think of it, what's really scary is that at 265, Boston is bigger than Shockey, Heap, Crumpler, Franks, Alexander, Pollard, and Gonzo. The only guy decent TE he wouldn't be bigger than is his old teammate Freddie Jones.

That's actually pretty frightening.

[Mr. Pickles]

If any of us defensive linemen go down, he's going two-way. I mean, 260 pounds, 5% body fat, a 4.3 40? That's 30 sacks.

[bolldpt]

WOW!!! Reading that article was kinda scary!! Boston is seriously addicted!! Gaining muscle mass is such a freakin drug for him. His trainer sounds pretty suspect as well. Every research article I have ever read or heard about in school has ever stated this amount of growth in muscle mass is ever good for the body. Now the persons body type has alot to do with how much mass a person can carry safely but not his. As was stated earlier his ankles are sprinters ankles.
The talk about his facial bones growing is classic signs of external GH intake. Excessive amounts of GH taken externally, enough to change facial structure, can cause a mirade of systemic health issues not to mention the musculoskeletal/ligamentous tissue breakdown as mentioned by the other posters here.
I feel for this guy!! He is wreaking his life!!!! No amount of money is worth a destroyed body by age 35. Not to mention the Cro-Magnum man look

[kingoly27]

Regardless of the substances going into his body, the rapid gain of muscle like that becomes too great of a strain on his tendons. And who knows, 90 different pills? You have to believe that there is some kind of chemisty experiment going on here. Ammonia + Bleach = deadly; ingredients in 90 different pills = hgh + steriods + draino????

[EastBayFunk]

The more I think about it the more sure I am that I wouldn't touch this guy in a dynasty league. He just sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

[cracKer]

Someone mentioned a guinea pig. It looks like the work of a mad scientist. Great results (or desired results) with no long term testing. Chemical X.

Unfortunately, his lack of stamina will keep him from being a two-way player, but it would be fun watching a faster Julius Peppers.

What's to keep him from actually being an end rusher in crucial third down situations?

[Aussie Cowboy]

WR's are a strange bunch.

[Nipsey]

I was at Charger camp last week. When I first got there, I saw #89 (I think he's #89) about 10 yards from me. I thought to myself, "why is that linebacker wearing #89?" Then I realized it was Boston. He has the biggest arms on the team by far, completely jacked. The size of the veins popping from his biceps were bigger than my fingers.

He was limping a bit after practice, probably just tired, but it was enough for me and my buddy to notice. Personally I think he has to get hurt at somepoint this year, he's just too big. Kind of like Canseco pulling something every year, just couldn't stay healthy, too big.

The bulk did help him though in practice. On one play he had Jammer covering him. Jammer tried to bump him at the line and Boston just swatted him out of his way and sprinted by him. Just threw him to the side like it was nothing. Caught a nice TD on that play. If he doesn't get hurt, the guy is going to be a very nice player this year.

[Everwars Nerd]

I'm curious about the face change. Could someone find some before and after pictures of the guy?

Before
After

[CaptainHucklebuck]

I know this isn't what everyone is looking for with this thread, but...

I have been 6'1 155-160 for most of my life. Thin and bones, as they say.

In the last 6 months, I've gone up to 6'1 198 and started working the extra weight into muscle mass - all of this on purpose because I've been seriously attempting to gain weight with no supplements. Granted, I'm at closer to 11% than 5% bodyfat, but I'm not a football player, either. I'm a bartender. If I cut out the carbs and focused on the workout, I have no doubt that I could be 205 7-8%, and I've got no real impetus to do that. I'm already married.

Boston could EASILY have gained the weight in a year - or even an off-season. The question of his ankles and knees is a good one though - I've certainly noticed the extra weight myself in wind-sprints at the gym. However, according to my doctor, this will be re-normalized within a year. By body will adjust itself. Boston's will do the same, as long as he stays under 270 I'm sure. I take 10 different pills every day. They're vitamins. Add in his ecstasy and vicadin pills for fun time... what damage could the other 60 pills possibly do?

[EastBayFunk]

Before
After

Thanks for the pics. It does look like his cheeks are a little more prominent, but I wouldn't say it's conclusive evidence.

[CaptainHucklebuck]

Before
After

Thanks for the pics. It does look like his cheeks are a little more prominent, but I wouldn't say it's conclusive evidence.

Yeah, it's hard to tell with the goatee... and, the guy had a HUGE jaw to begin with, especially for the age he was when that first photo must've been taken.

[Alias]

I read another article stating he spends like $200k annually on his bodybuilding, his goal is to be explosive, not to have endurance. Ideally he would have a few big plays a drive & rest a few plays. Problem is San Diego has a different opinion on how they want to use him, that I would assume is why they want to see him lose the weight. With the recent injury to LT2 there's a good chance I can get him at #2 & I wouldn't hesitate taking Boston in the early 3rd if he was my best option, that would be some enjoyable games to watch having both of these guys on your roster.

[switz]

Before
After

Thanks for the pics. It does look like his cheeks are a little more prominent, but I wouldn't say it's conclusive evidence.

Yeah, it's hard to tell with the goatee... and, the guy had a HUGE jaw to begin with, especially for the age he was when that first photo must've been taken.

here's a better current face closeup

It really doesn't look like his face has changed that much other than aging a little bit. His cheeks are a bit bigger, but he's smiling so they should be.

I don't know about HGH, I tihnk he's just got his body fine tuned. I do worry about the ankles and knees, I think he'd be an awesome WR at 225-235, which is close to where he is. He's about 10 LBs overweight, and should lose it quickly.

I guess after reading this, and seeing pics, I'm thinking he's way too into body building, but that the players who complain are simply envious.

Edited by switz, 21 August 2003 - 04:13 AM.

[Automatic Ghost]

Steering clear of this guy. Too much of a gamble.

[Automatic Ghost]

Steering clear of this guy. Too much of a gamble.