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13 Iowa football players sent to hospital (1 Viewer)

bicycle_seat_sniffer

Smells like chicken
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)—The University of Iowa said Wednesday that 13 football players had to be hospitalized this week with a muscle disorder following grueling offseason workouts that left them with extreme soreness and discolored urine.

The players have rhabdomyolysis, a stress-induced syndrome that can damage cells and cause kidney damage and even failure in severe cases, school spokesman Tom Moore said at a news conference two days after players were hospitalized at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

School officials said the players, whom they would not identify, were in stable condition and responding well to treatment, which includes bed rest and the administration of hydrating fluids. Moore said he did not know when the players would be discharged.

Director of football operations Paul Federici said the players participated in workouts that started last Thursday after they returned from winter break. Some of them complained to medical staff after a workout on Monday and symptoms included soreness throughout the body and tea-colored urine, and other players were told they should receive treatment if they had similar problems, he said.

A former athletic trainer, Federici said he’s never seen the syndrome among student-athletes at Iowa before. He said he was still looking into the details of the workouts but said they were no different than those from previous years during what he called a critical seven-week stretch of training.

“It is strenuous. It is ambitious. The student athletes know that,” he said. “This is an anomaly. We just haven’t seen this type of response before.”

He said the players range from freshmen to upperclassmen and include a range of positions.

One of those hospitalized is freshman linebacker Jim Poggi of Towson, Md., whose father, Biff Poggi, said his son complained to trainers on Monday after several days of soreness. He said his son’s pain started last Thursday with a lower-body workout that involved performing 100 squats in a certain amount of time and pulling a sled 100 yards. It got worse Friday after an upper-body workout, and Monday’s workout “didn’t go well.” His urine was discolored, and the team’s medical staff sent him for treatment.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, athletic director Gary Barta and team doctor Ned Amendola were all out of town on business and not at the press conference. Chris Doyle, the team’s strength and conditioning coach who has worked under Ferentz all 12 years of his tenure, and other strength coaches who oversaw the workouts were not made available to reporters.

Doyle is nationally known as a leader in player development, turning sometimes scrawny freshmen into physical specimens by the time they graduate. Ferentz has said that is a key part of his program’s success.

Biff Poggi, a high school football coach in Baltimore, said he was concerned about the situation but also confident his son would recover and rejoin the team. He said the hospitalized players are disappointed and eager to resume practice.

University of Iowa doctor John Stokes, a kidney specialist who is not involved in the players’ treatment, said the common denominator is they had all participated in strenuous exercise, which commonly brings on the disorder in otherwise healthy young people. He said the symptom is common among military recruits in boot camp and treatment usually focuses on trying to limit kidney damage.

“I’ve been at UI for 32 years and I don’t think I’ve seen 13 people get rhabdomyolysis,” he said. “It’s a fairly common diagnosis .This cluster would be unusual.”

Athletes routinely recover from the disorder and go back to playing, but they may change their exercise routines and ensure better hydration, he said.

Associate athletics director Fred Mims said school officials would take steps to “ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Mims, who is in charge of the department’s compliance with NCAA rules, said the matter did not need to be reported since the workouts were allowed and routine.

He said the case is a “good lesson” for why university officials should ask players about how they are feeling after strenuous workouts. He said Iowa will also try to avoid problems after players return from school breaks and might not have kept up with fitness routines by making sure expectations are clear.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news...ershospitalized

 
That's too many guys at the same time to have been a result of just workouts. What's the odds these guys partied together?

Risk factors include the following:

•Alcoholism (with subsequent muscle tremors)

•Certain inherited or genetic syndromes

•Crush Injuries

•Heat intolerance

•Heatstroke

•Ischemia or necrosis of the muscles (as may occur with arterial occlusion, deep venous thrombosis, or other conditions)

•Low phosphate levels

•Seizures

•Severe exertion such as marathon running or calisthenics

•Shaking chills

•Trauma

•Use or overdose of drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines, statins, heroin, or PCP

SOMETHING (possibly several somethings) besides the workouts made a major contribution to this incident. A slightly hotter workout room with a slightly harder than normal workout coupled with normal college drinking and maybe a little extra?

 
That's too many guys at the same time to have been a result of just workouts. What's the odds these guys partied together?

Risk factors include the following:

•Alcoholism (with subsequent muscle tremors)

•Certain inherited or genetic syndromes

•Crush Injuries

•Heat intolerance

•Heatstroke

•Ischemia or necrosis of the muscles (as may occur with arterial occlusion, deep venous thrombosis, or other conditions)

•Low phosphate levels

•Seizures

•Severe exertion such as marathon running or calisthenics

•Shaking chills

•Trauma

•Use or overdose of drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines, statins, heroin, or PCP

SOMETHING (possibly several somethings) besides the workouts made a major contribution to this incident. A slightly hotter workout room with a slightly harder than normal workout coupled with normal college drinking and maybe a little extra?
Hi Rene,If there are 12 different risk factors, why focus on the absolute worst ones and infer things about the players from them? That seems like the wrong approach.

 
I remember plenty of friends that went through the military telling me how in bootcamp they had to down X amount of gallons of water right there in front of their drill instructor to be sure they were hydrated and after part of the first one, they thought they'd gag. Soon enough, that wasn't a problem. Who hasn't been of college age and discussed their diet and whether or not they'd get "drunker" because of it? How about running and getting a cramp then discussing fluids or eating a banana or somesuch? Kids gotta learn and some of this pain is a normal process of growing up IMO.

Anyone that has ever coached, even a recreation sport with little kids, knows that the water cooler can be a spot where lazy players gather. That was a common issue in coaching mags when Korey Stringer passed away and less publicized people had these enormous problems. Coaching had become simple-get your drink and get back to it. Parents whined what if it's not enough time and it became such an ugly mess.

It doesn't seem like Iowa did anything wrong here and with 10k rules now, that's a little surprising. It's gotta be on the players and their lack of maturity or personal responsibility or somesuch. The rules were followed. I googled this and it doesn't say anywhere I read that the coaches or trainers did anything wrong.

These kids have to be given a break and a drink if they ask. If none of them did due to peer pressure, well again they gotta grow up and deal with that.

So once the shock of going to the hospital wears off people reading this, they're going to realize these kids got some fluids and were sent on their way. Let's not make it like they had life saving surgery.

 
I remember plenty of friends that went through the military telling me how in bootcamp they had to down X amount of gallons of water right there in front of their drill instructor to be sure they were hydrated and after part of the first one, they thought they'd gag. Soon enough, that wasn't a problem. Who hasn't been of college age and discussed their diet and whether or not they'd get "drunker" because of it? How about running and getting a cramp then discussing fluids or eating a banana or somesuch? Kids gotta learn and some of this pain is a normal process of growing up IMO.Anyone that has ever coached, even a recreation sport with little kids, knows that the water cooler can be a spot where lazy players gather. That was a common issue in coaching mags when Korey Stringer passed away and less publicized people had these enormous problems. Coaching had become simple-get your drink and get back to it. Parents whined what if it's not enough time and it became such an ugly mess.It doesn't seem like Iowa did anything wrong here and with 10k rules now, that's a little surprising. It's gotta be on the players and their lack of maturity or personal responsibility or somesuch. The rules were followed. I googled this and it doesn't say anywhere I read that the coaches or trainers did anything wrong. These kids have to be given a break and a drink if they ask. If none of them did due to peer pressure, well again they gotta grow up and deal with that.So once the shock of going to the hospital wears off people reading this, they're going to realize these kids got some fluids and were sent on their way. Let's not make it like they had life saving surgery.
The sheer volume of players isnt a concern???? I mean 1 maybe 2 over exhausted or something fine but we are talking about over a dozen kids. Something stinks in denmark
 
As long as Iowa didn't exceed their allotted practice time I'm sure no penalties will occur.
Practice an hour a day too much and get NCAA sanctions. 12 players with kidney failure is cool with the NCAA though. Now they are looking at ex-players that have had kidney issues. Heard one needs a transplant. This is not the last we have heard on this topic.
but they didn't get sanctions for that and I haven't seen anywhere that they practiced an hour too long. I gotta ask though even if suppose they did practice an hour too long-what do you think a coach can have them do in just an hour that would cause this? I haven't seen anything on a kidney transplant and all I read on kidney issues was that once they were hydrated again things were cool.

The NCAA has been all over this stuff.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ncaa+rules+...lient=firefox-a

Check out the PDFs on just these results. They are impressive.

Click on that NCAA link.

I didn't even link to the rules every team has to follow. They are educating these kids. Ya gotta see that. These kids are away from their parents home for the first time in their lives. They're going to do some stupid stuff and learn from it. It just happens.

 
As long as Iowa didn't exceed their allotted practice time I'm sure no penalties will occur.
Practice an hour a day too much and get NCAA sanctions. 12 players with kidney failure is cool with the NCAA though. Now they are looking at ex-players that have had kidney issues. One 28 year old needs a transplant. This is not the last we have heard on this topic.
Just need one player to blow the whistle and you've got SMU all over again...
 
The sheer volume of players isnt a concern???? I mean 1 maybe 2 over exhausted or something fine but we are talking about over a dozen kids.

Something stinks in denmark
Not IMO.The one we know of is a frosh. If I make a leap and only say 13 frosh needed to be hydrated at the hospital. What do you guess those freshmen did the night before?

We are not in season and IIRC this is the time of year that pretenders try out for the team. At OU there were like 100 people trying to make the Sooners if not more. 5-10 inch 150 lb freshmen telling everyone how great they were in high school before they took the field to go up against 300lb linemen and 6-4 240lb linebackers.

How many do you guess were at Iowa? 80?

Only 13 weren't hydrated properly but 67 made it through practice fine and were there the next day?

I'm guessing those 13 were the 5-10 inch invincible frosh finding out they weren't invincible.

If rules were broken this would be totally different and I'd be "all over" Iowa but there's zero evidence of that. Heck that kid's dad seemed to talk to every news network and I don't read of him saying they broke any rules. Don't you think a father would have?

 
As long as Iowa didn't exceed their allotted practice time I'm sure no penalties will occur.
Practice an hour a day too much and get NCAA sanctions. 12 players with kidney failure is cool with the NCAA though. Now they are looking at ex-players that have had kidney issues. One 28 year old needs a transplant. This is not the last we have heard on this topic.
Did you really think no one would click on that link and see that that is a 28 year old former Iowa player? Geesh
 
As long as Iowa didn't exceed their allotted practice time I'm sure no penalties will occur.
Practice an hour a day too much and get NCAA sanctions. 12 players with kidney failure is cool with the NCAA though. Now they are looking at ex-players that have had kidney issues. Heard one needs a transplant. This is not the last we have heard on this topic.
but they didn't get sanctions for that and I haven't seen anywhere that they practiced an hour too long. I gotta ask though even if suppose they did practice an hour too long-what do you think a coach can have them do in just an hour that would cause this? I haven't seen anything on a kidney transplant and all I read on kidney issues was that once they were hydrated again things were cool.

The NCAA has been all over this stuff.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ncaa+rules+...lient=firefox-a

Check out the PDFs on just these results. They are impressive.

Click on that NCAA link.

I didn't even link to the rules every team has to follow. They are educating these kids. Ya gotta see that. These kids are away from their parents home for the first time in their lives. They're going to do some stupid stuff and learn from it. It just happens.
Michigan was the one that got sanctioned when Rich Rod was there. I don't remember any players getting sick though.
 
It doesn't seem like Iowa did anything wrong here and with 10k rules now, that's a little surprising. It's gotta be on the players and their lack of maturity or personal responsibility or somesuch. The rules were followed. I googled this and it doesn't say anywhere I read that the coaches or trainers did anything wrong.These kids have to be given a break and a drink if they ask. If none of them did due to peer pressure, well again they gotta grow up and deal with that.
strength and fitness coaches have a responsibility to create and implement programming that doesnt result in rhabdomyolysis, among other things. they are the experts. the kids are taught to push themselves and trust their coaches. unless the kids were ingesting illicit substances, this is in no way on them.
 
As long as Iowa didn't exceed their allotted practice time I'm sure no penalties will occur.
Practice an hour a day too much and get NCAA sanctions. 12 players with kidney failure is cool with the NCAA though. Now they are looking at ex-players that have had kidney issues. Heard one needs a transplant. This is not the last we have heard on this topic.
but they didn't get sanctions for that and I haven't seen anywhere that they practiced an hour too long. I gotta ask though even if suppose they did practice an hour too long-what do you think a coach can have them do in just an hour that would cause this? I haven't seen anything on a kidney transplant and all I read on kidney issues was that once they were hydrated again things were cool.

The NCAA has been all over this stuff.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ncaa+rules+...lient=firefox-a

Check out the PDFs on just these results. They are impressive.

Click on that NCAA link.

I didn't even link to the rules every team has to follow. They are educating these kids. Ya gotta see that. These kids are away from their parents home for the first time in their lives. They're going to do some stupid stuff and learn from it. It just happens.
I had acute renal failure (kidneys) at age 21 but I never drank or did drugs. I roofed all day on a Friday then played in baseball tourneys on Saturday & Monday with a swimming party fit in there on Sunday. I was extremely dehydrated and took fluids for about 2 days. My long term effects are evident as now (at age 28) I have the kidney function of an average 65 yr old man. Once it fails once (at least in my case it seems) you are more susceptible to it down the road.

 
If I'm the parent of one of these 13 kids, I'm asking wtf Ferentz hasn't been back to campus yet to look after my kid when this went down a couple days ago.

I understand it's the final stretch in recruiting, but this looks bad for Ferentz. And if I'm the parent of one of the kids he's doing an in home visit with the past couple of days, I'm thinking wtf he's at my house instead of looking after his seriously ill players.

 
That's too many guys at the same time to have been a result of just workouts. What's the odds these guys partied together?

Risk factors include the following:

•Alcoholism (with subsequent muscle tremors)

•Certain inherited or genetic syndromes

•Crush Injuries

•Heat intolerance

•Heatstroke

•Ischemia or necrosis of the muscles (as may occur with arterial occlusion, deep venous thrombosis, or other conditions)

•Low phosphate levels

•Seizures

•Severe exertion such as marathon running or calisthenics

•Shaking chills

•Trauma

•Use or overdose of drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines, statins, heroin, or PCP

SOMETHING (possibly several somethings) besides the workouts made a major contribution to this incident. A slightly hotter workout room with a slightly harder than normal workout coupled with normal college drinking and maybe a little extra?
Hi Rene,If there are 12 different risk factors, why focus on the absolute worst ones and infer things about the players from them? That seems like the wrong approach.
But it's so much more fun to do!
 
That's too many guys at the same time to have been a result of just workouts. What's the odds these guys partied together?

Risk factors include the following:

•Alcoholism (with subsequent muscle tremors)

•Certain inherited or genetic syndromes

•Crush Injuries

•Heat intolerance

•Heatstroke

•Ischemia or necrosis of the muscles (as may occur with arterial occlusion, deep venous thrombosis, or other conditions)

•Low phosphate levels

•Seizures

•Severe exertion such as marathon running or calisthenics

•Shaking chills

•Trauma

•Use or overdose of drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines, statins, heroin, or PCP

SOMETHING (possibly several somethings) besides the workouts made a major contribution to this incident. A slightly hotter workout room with a slightly harder than normal workout coupled with normal college drinking and maybe a little extra?
Hi Rene,If there are 12 different risk factors, why focus on the absolute worst ones and infer things about the players from them? That seems like the wrong approach.
I didn't...I focused on the ones which could be common to most or all of them. Ischemia, heat intolerance, trauma, chills, low PO4, genetics, and seizures would all be risk factors which may explain one or two people, not 13...and certainly not at the same time. THIRTEEN kids don't all come down with something like this AT THE SAME TIME without something linking them, something in common. Hard exercise is common and could easily cause 1 or 2 of these...not thirteen.
 
Guys, many in here are equating this with simple dehydration. IT IS MUCH MORE. This illness is something far more serious and far less common than dehydration. Push 100 kids to exercise hard all day long with no water and you'd get a lot of passed out dehydrated kids, but you wouldn't have thirteen cases of this illness.

There is far more to this than hard exercise. Not could be, not might be...there is.

 
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Guys, many in here are equating this with simple dehydration. IT IS MUCH MORE. This illness is something far more serious and far less common than dehydration. Push 100 kids to exercise hard all day long with no water and you'd get a lot of passed out dehydrated kids, but you wouldn't have thirteen cases of this illness.There is far more to this than hard exercise. Not could be, not might be...there is.
Where did you get your medical license?
 
RUSF18 said:
3* = stud now? Think he'll end up at Michigan State anyway. Carry on.
4* at Scout and ESPN. At 6'1" and already 295 pounds, he's got potential to be a monster in college. Explodes off the ball, and pretty fast for a kid that big.
 
renesauz said:
That's too many guys at the same time to have been a result of just workouts. What's the odds these guys partied together?

Risk factors include the following:

•Alcoholism (with subsequent muscle tremors)

•Certain inherited or genetic syndromes

•Crush Injuries

•Heat intolerance

•Heatstroke

•Ischemia or necrosis of the muscles (as may occur with arterial occlusion, deep venous thrombosis, or other conditions)

•Low phosphate levels

•Seizures

•Severe exertion such as marathon running or calisthenics

•Shaking chills

•Trauma

•Use or overdose of drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines, statins, heroin, or PCP

SOMETHING (possibly several somethings) besides the workouts made a major contribution to this incident. A slightly hotter workout room with a slightly harder than normal workout coupled with normal college drinking and maybe a little extra?
Hi Rene,If there are 12 different risk factors, why focus on the absolute worst ones and infer things about the players from them? That seems like the wrong approach.
I didn't...I focused on the ones which could be common to most or all of them. Ischemia, heat intolerance, trauma, chills, low PO4, genetics, and seizures would all be risk factors which may explain one or two people, not 13...and certainly not at the same time. THIRTEEN kids don't all come down with something like this AT THE SAME TIME without something linking them, something in common. Hard exercise is common and could easily cause 1 or 2 of these...not thirteen.
1. Yes, you did. The "maybe a little extra" and "maybe these guys partied together" is a pretty obvious focus.2. The major commonality is obviously that they all worked out together.

Over the line hard exercise is NOT common, but if they were all working out together, it could've happened here. That's the obvious answer, yet you were looking past that to illegal substances. Then you denied focusing on that.

Then in posts after this, you imply it again.

Make up your mind.

 
Article providing some more perspective from one parent.

http://hawkcentral.com/2011/01/26/players-...trusts-coaches/

“As a father, I’m concerned,” Poggi said. “Obviously, when your son is admitted to the hospital, that’s a concern.”

Poggi said he was pleased with the responsiveness from the Iowa coaches and medical staff and the treatment his son has received. He said he’s had at least five conversations in recent days with Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and has had continual contact with linebackers coach Darrell Wilson.

“As a high school coach, I’ve sent over eighty-some kids to play Division I football, and I do not trust anyone more than I trust Kirk Ferentz,” Poggi said. “My son had a chance to go to Texas and Ohio State. They were the last (other programs on his list). He came to Iowa because of the character of Kirk and his people. That, to me, is rock solid.

“There’s not a finer human being on the planet to go play for than Kirk, and my son’s experience here has been amazing. He loves this place. Typically, when you send kids away to play football, the first year is not a great year — a lot of whining and wanting to come home. He has loved it.”

--

This will play out, but with the privacy laws--the University can't comment too much on details. Lots of speculation going on as to possible causes.

Many of the athletes admitted were freshman or younger players. All athletes are in stable condition.

 
RUSF18 said:
3* = stud now? Think he'll end up at Michigan State anyway. Carry on.
He was a 4 star until they found out he was an Iowa lean. Seriously Iowa plays with teams with a lot more talent every year. They may not win but rarely do they get blown out. The coaches demand hard work and weed those out that can not hack the gear. This workout has been done every year. This is the only time there has been issues. My guess is you should not drink the night before a hard workout.Just remember Ferentz's both Ferentz's boys have done this workout. He would not have his own kids doing it if it were not safe.Biff Poggi is a great highschool football coach and an author.
 
Just remember Ferentz's both Ferentz's boys have done this workout. He would not have his own kids doing it if it were not safe.
eh, hes not the strength and conditioning coach. he almost certainly does not have the expertise to differentiate if a workout is barely unsafe.
 
“I would imagine most of them didn’t do anything (during the three-week break),” Biff Poggi said. “I could tell you (Jim) didn’t do anything except eat a lot and lay around, and then (Jan. 20) was kind of the first day back. You know, it was a lot of work.”
its not exactly controversial or advanced exercise science to ease into a tough program after a long layoff. its been reported that the kids were doing 100 squats at 240 for time on their first workout back. i think there is a good chance this is irresponsible programming on the trainers part.
 
It doesn't seem like Iowa did anything wrong here and with 10k rules now, that's a little surprising. It's gotta be on the players and their lack of maturity or personal responsibility or somesuch. The rules were followed. I googled this and it doesn't say anywhere I read that the coaches or trainers did anything wrong.

These kids have to be given a break and a drink if they ask. If none of them did due to peer pressure, well again they gotta grow up and deal with that.
strength and fitness coaches have a responsibility to create and implement programming that doesnt result in rhabdomyolysis, among other things. they are the experts. the kids are taught to push themselves and trust their coaches. unless the kids were ingesting illicit substances, this is in no way on them.
Oh be serious.The kids that didn't speak up because of peer pressure and say I need a minute or I gotta get a drink of water...umm yeah it's on them. Who hasn't "been there"? It's dopey. Yeah we've all done it, but that doesn't make them free from blame.

And the no rules violation is HUGE here. Go google for the NCAA rules regarding practice and hydration and such. It is sooo not like it used to be. Aside from all that goes on in a practice, these kids have to read a zillion pages and sign off on them. That reading teaches them things like proper hydration and to be vocal to a trainer or coach and....the rules are so different now, so thorough.

On the radio today they were saying it's not possible to be following the rules and have this happen. I can roll with that if it comes out as such.

That would send this off on a different tangent though.

As I've said since the beginning-if there is no rule violation then this is totally on the players.

 
I had acute renal failure (kidneys) at age 21 but I never drank or did drugs. I roofed all day on a Friday then played in baseball tourneys on Saturday & Monday with a swimming party fit in there on Sunday. I was extremely dehydrated and took fluids for about 2 days. My long term effects are evident as now (at age 28) I have the kidney function of an average 65 yr old man. Once it fails once (at least in my case it seems) you are more susceptible to it down the road.
Sorry man. What's your gut (seriously no pun intended) feeling here? Remember this is more akin to a tryout and far away from the season.
 
All players were tested and none tested positive for illegal drugs or supplements per Adam Rittenberg-ESPN.

 
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1. Yes, you did. The "maybe a little extra" and "maybe these guys partied together" is a pretty obvious focus.2. The major commonality is obviously that they all worked out together. Over the line hard exercise is NOT common, but if they were all working out together, it could've happened here. That's the obvious answer, yet you were looking past that to illegal substances. Then you denied focusing on that.Then in posts after this, you imply it again.Make up your mind.
I clearly stated that over the line exercise is NOT, all by itself, a reasonable explanation for this many players at the same time. Over the line exercise does not routinely result in this condition. SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENED. It doesn't have to be drugs, but there is more than simply exercise. I was merely pointing out the more likely candidates.
 
That's too many guys at the same time to have been a result of just workouts. What's the odds these guys partied together?

Risk factors include the following:

•Alcoholism (with subsequent muscle tremors)

•Certain inherited or genetic syndromes

•Crush Injuries

•Heat intolerance

•Heatstroke

•Ischemia or necrosis of the muscles (as may occur with arterial occlusion, deep venous thrombosis, or other conditions)

•Low phosphate levels

•Seizures

•Severe exertion such as marathon running or calisthenics

•Shaking chills

•Trauma

•Use or overdose of drugs, especially cocaine, amphetamines, statins, heroin, or PCP

SOMETHING (possibly several somethings) besides the workouts made a major contribution to this incident. A slightly hotter workout room with a slightly harder than normal workout coupled with normal college drinking and maybe a little extra?
Hi Rene,If there are 12 different risk factors, why focus on the absolute worst ones and infer things about the players from them? That seems like the wrong approach.
I didn't...I focused on the ones which could be common to most or all of them.
No, you went out of your way to overlook the one they had in common --- football practices.
 
All 13 players tested negative for illegal drugs, but officials couldn't confirm whether any or all were taking supplements.
link
There were several reports Friday that the workouts -- which included players being timed performing 100 squats at half their weight capability before pushing sleds -- were the players' first since a three-week layoff after the Insight Bowl and allegedly came with a strength coach telling them that because the team failed to finish games enough in 2010, "We'll find out who wants to be here."
You can't define coach Kirk Ferentz by the latter, not when he remained on the road for two days after learning of his players being hospitalized. He eventually made it home and into a den of anger from parents of the 13 who found it odd Ferentz would continue pursuing other kids while theirs were going through a battery of tests, with reports of some gaining 30 to 50 pounds as fluids were being pumped into their bodies and one sustaining kidney damage that might be permanent.
 
When 13 Iowa football players went to the hospital last week after an extreme exercise session, I knew something was fishy. They all were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a stress-induced syndrome that occurs when muscles break down. It can injure cells and cause severe kidney damage. You can get it from somebody making you lift weights until you puke. And you discover it in two ways: Your urine turns brown, and you basically can’t move.

Players had to squat a given weight 100 times while timed. One player, for example, squatted 240 pounds. Multiplied by 100, that’s 24,000 pounds. Players also had to bench-press a designated amount 100 times. The guy who did the 24,000 pounds of squats said online from the hospital that he couldn’t feel his legs afterward and fell down some stairs.

Wherever it is that tough meets really stupid, that’s where Iowa is.
link
A doctor says 7 University of South Carolina swimmers came down with the same muscle disorder in 2007 that has led to the hospitalization of 13 Iowa football players and they may have simply been pushing their bodies too hard after a break. Rupert Galvez says the swimmers were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis following three days of intense workouts after they returned from summer break. He says they reported swelling and weakness in their arms and discolored urine.

Galvez was involved in their treatment, and he wrote a 2008 article in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine about the case. He says coaches should be cautious about putting athletes through rigorous training after they return from extended breaks. Iowa players were hospitalized Monday after strenuous workouts following winter break.
link
 
while theirs were going through a battery of tests, with reports of some gaining 30 to 50 pounds as fluids were being pumped into their bodies
I don't understand this part
It was a report from one of the parents. ESPN Link

Schad also reports the following new details on the situation:

* One parent said some players had gained 30 to 50 pounds since entering the hospital because of the amount of fluids that have been forced into their bodies.

* The parent said that one player was told he had sustained "20 to 30 percent loss of kidney function and that the damage may or may not be repaired."
 
I called a college positional coach last night.

He paints the same picture as I failed to do earlier.

There's 50-100 guys that think they were awesome in high school yet no one has ever heard of them. They show up for a tryout sort of practice. So there's 5-8 150lb guys saying they want to practice against 6-4 300lb guys.

They have to have this tryout. It raises money as schools find ways with this. It raises awareness of just how great the players are and...he said there is usually someone on a booster club or board somewhere who is demanding his 5 foot 4 inch son get a chance to be the next Rudy.

He said these practices are a joke to the regular players on the team. To the ordinary man they are real difficult.

The plan is to let em try out and weed them out versus each other. Most of those 50+ will never even drill with the first string guys. It'd be too much risk of injury and a PR nightmare to have a 5-4inch guy getting tackled by a 300lb behemoth.

He said there's been as many as 300 at one time at these tryouts so 13 struggling with the workout and fluids isn't that surprising. He also said he's seen players show up drunk with beer muscles to these and sent em' on their way before it even really began. He remembers a kid high running five or six laps like a bullet and almost collapsing after.

He thought the problem with theirs(wouldn't touch Iowa) was parents and administrators at the school and society wanting everyone to get a chance. It's not realistic and the whole nature of it is to promote kids learning the cold hard truth about their athletic career being over. He'd rather they learn it somewhere else. He swore that every single college coach hates this process with a passion but went back to what do you tell the booster that just raised a mil for you-his kid can't run a few laps and see how he stacks up?

He said most of these 5-4 inch guys go on to claim "hey I used to be on the (team name)" for the rest of their college career as if the tryout meant anything.

I asked him if he ever heard of 13 guys getting sent to the hospital and all. He said he didn't know. The kids don't usually get cut but just sorta walk off the field. Every time there's a new energy drink or energy bar there's kids in college overdoing it. He remembers seeing a gallon of those 5-hour energy drinks and wondering how many of those little bottles it took to fill up a gallon.

When I asked him about coaches driving the kids too hard he said most of the kids are playing for their dads on that day. Their fathers watched them since they were in peewees, tossed the ball in the yard, etc and it became both of their dreams for the kid to make a college roster. The kids don't want to let their dad down.

He said at least six times that these practices are not hard for the regular players and that they don't even really get difficult til after the spring games.

All he'd give me on Iowa was that there is nothing they can do that won't be a large negative. They say the kids did something illegal or stupid and they're coming down on potential student athletes. They say the coaches worked em' too hard and coaches will be fired. He went on and on and basically said the only way the truth comes out here is if some independent investigator is hired. No way anyone from Iowa talks-nothing good can come from that.

I did ask him about the NCAA practice rules and such and he said he has never seen a kid say "I want a drink" or "I gotta stop for a second coach" ever since it was a rule that coaches had to let them.

 
There were several reports Friday that the workouts -- which included players being timed performing 100 squats at half their weight capability before pushing sleds --
I saw this or heard this on TV as half their body weight. Half their capability is different. Squatting half your body weight isn't pushing them at all. My couch sitting butt could probably do that right now.
 
while theirs were going through a battery of tests, with reports of some gaining 30 to 50 pounds as fluids were being pumped into their bodies
I don't understand this part
It was a report from one of the parents. ESPN Link

Schad also reports the following new details on the situation:

* One parent said some players had gained 30 to 50 pounds since entering the hospital because of the amount of fluids that have been forced into their bodies.

* The parent said that one player was told he had sustained "20 to 30 percent loss of kidney function and that the damage may or may not be repaired."
This is shameful then. These kids' clothing had to be soaked maybe even with a puddle under them. Ghost complexions with beet red faces and ...it had to be where anyone could have seen it was a problem then.
 
I clearly stated that over the line exercise is NOT, all by itself, a reasonable explanation for this many players at the same time. Over the line exercise does not routinely result in this condition. SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENED. It doesn't have to be drugs, but there is more than simply exercise. I was merely pointing out the more likely candidates.
I agree with this.If you read enough football books about the old days you hear of extreme cramps, guys passing out and foggy vision and stuff from the coach working them too hard. Never this stuff we're hearing from Iowa. I feel like this would have happened before, in the old days, when coaches were part drill sergeant maniacs.

If "fatness" post is true and they lost 40-50 pounds of fluid, I do see that the drug tests came back negative, but do we even know if it'd show up if someone lost that much fluid? I mean we read "stays in the system for X amount of days" about normal people. That's like a super ultra body flush right there. Granted it's horrific under these circumstances.

If you think about 40-50 pounds of fluid, don't you wonder at what rate the sweat comes out of your pours to lose that much? If you google http://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+sw...lient=firefox-a it shows a body sweats 1 to 1.5 liters per hour during rigorous exercise. 40-50 pounds almost doesn't seem possible.

Something really stinks here and I really feel like it's gotta be some dopey college kid thinking he's invincible type thing. It's just so extreme and without precedent.

 

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