“Do you know how hard it is to play as much football as he played and play as hard as he played, and then turn around and start doing this?” Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule told the Journal Star. “He didn’t get a break. He didn’t negotiate a break. He was like, ‘This is what we’re doing, coach.’”
Yes, I do. I weighed 185-190ish at the end of senior football season and had little fat. I was certified to wrestle at 152 about three weeks later. Which I did. Which was horrible, stupid, bad, wrong, and dumb, and probably had me on death's door a number of occasions. (It wasn't just the starvation diet of 400-500 cal/day. It was having to not eat or drink water for 24-48h before a match if I was going to make weight. So, y'know... peeing light brown or even light-medium if I did at all on match day. Quite spectacularly stupid. Especially since it meant my body just ate the muscle I'd spent the prior spring, summer, and fall adding on.
At least that guy had a lot of blubber to lose in dropping from 330 to 285.
Anyone with kids considering wrestling, keep an eye on them. Cutting weight is self-defeating even if you survive it. If I did it again, the most I'd consider dropping to was 171 but would probably just take the 189 spot and keep on bulking up to the extent I could during the season.
