Today I played my first (American) tackle football game (Stockholm Mean Machines) I am SUCH a rookie! I only got my pads 3 weeks ago and had to borrow all of them from the team and other players... BUT boy was it fun. I (now) play Offensive Right Guard and was deathly scared before the match but it turned out that our own team during practice hits much harder than our opponent. At 48 years old and about 16 months post GPB, I am soooo happy to have done this. I still have problems seeing myself at my weight though and think i'm still "fat" in my head even though everyone else sees me as somewhat of a bean poll (Im 5 foot 11). I also could only play this one game this season because I'm getting surgery on my foot which is what killed my playing sports when I was 19.

On the other hand, I was Googling around about football and weight issues since I dont want to gain weight from eating too much (like I did after injuring my foot but muscle is fine though) and I ran across this article about a very overweight somewhat famous player (that I had no idea about). A great read by the way. After reading the article, I wondered how he was doing now and saw the blurb in the middle. He had died at 38. So it just reminds me (my sister died from complications from obesity) that I truly need to keep "on the wagon".

Still happy but cautious....

Hope you have lots of fun playing! I have to say you do look like an athlete and now you are.

Congratulations on your new sport and your weight loss success. That is a great article you linked to also—thank you!

That is great! I played for the women's league here in the US for the DC Divas. I hope you have so much fun playing and be safe!

Enjoy your new sport.