For many professional athletes, 40 is the new 30
Tom Brady turns 40 on Thursday, although his diet devoid of sugars, dairy and white flour could make the New England Patriot quarterback’s birthday cake different from most who celebrate the big four-oh.
Brady, already the oldest non-kicker in the NFL, has said he wants to play into his mid-40s and leans on his mostly vegan diet and his approach to fitness that will be detailed in an up- coming book.
There are myriad explanations for Brady’s longevity: newer rules that protect the quarterback, along with advances in diet and training.
Brady is hardly alone in the 40and-over club: The NHL’s Jaromir Jagr (45), Major League Baseball’s Bartolo Colon (44) and the NBA’s Vince Carter (401⁄ 2) are the oldest in their respective leagues.
“The information teams provide in the areas of training, recovery and nutrition are being used by athletes throughout the STORY CONTINUES ON 2A
year even when they’re not with the team,” Scott Caulfield of the National Strength and Conditioning Association said in email to USA TODAY. “You’re seeing athletes make commitments to hiring trainers for the offseason, having their own nutritionist or chef, and taking advantage of recovery methods.”
Caulfield said recovery methods include cryotherapy — in which the body is exposed to temperatures lower than minus-200 degrees to address muscle soreness — and massage. Advances in sports medicine, including everimproving surgical techniques, also can’t be overlooked. Neither can lifestyle decisions. “The attention to nutrition and lifestyle, sleep specifically, has been the biggest change and has the greatest impact on longevity,” Matt Nichol, a former strength and conditioning coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, said in an email. “I know some successful young players who don’t eat or sleep well and party too much, but not very many older ones.”
For NFL players, there are three letters that are more worrisome than knees or shoulders not holding up: CTE.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a debilitating and progressive brain disease that has been traced to concussions and other brain trauma, has been found in 110 of 111 former NFL players whose brains were donated for study by researchers, according to an updated study published last week. Ann McKee, director of Boston University’s CTE Center and one of the co-authors of the study, said researchers are exploring the role the length of an athlete’s career factors into incidences of CTE.
“I think there is exponentially more information available on the effects football has on the human body then there was 20 years ago,” famed agent Leigh Steinberg told USA TODAY Sports. “Players are increasingly aware of the toll football takes and increasingly more conscious about having a healthy body post-career. ... Younger players are aware of the fact that each year of pro football imperils their ability to lead a normal life after football.”
The average NFL career is three to six seasons, according to NFL Players Association and NFL statistics. That means players who have been in the league 17 seasons like Brady are outliers.
Steinberg said the majority of players will continue to play as long as possible:
“They accept the risk that most of us would run from. Most will play as long as they can until they’re too injured to continue or nobody wants them.”