Did other factors affect stricken Hawkeyes?
By TOM WITOSKY and BRYCE MILLER
twitosky@dmreg.com and brmiller@dmreg.com
Details about what sent 13 University of Iowa football players to the hospital raise questions about player activities outside strenuous weekend workouts, a medical expert and major-college strength and conditioning coach said Thursday.
Players were admitted Monday after some reported brown and discolored urine, and university officials said the men remain hospitalized while being treated for rhabdomyolysis.
Dr. John Graves, a staff physician in the division of hypertension and internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said doctors at University of Iowa Hospitals should center substantial attention on nontraining factors. At the University of Tulsa, assistant strength and conditioning coach Paul Arndorfer — who attended Iowa and knows Hawkeyes strength coach Chris Doyle personally — raised similar issues.
Graves was asked whether the inability to find a common thread among the cases while hospitalized is unusual.
“Yes. That says that the kids aren’t telling you what happened on the weekend,” he said. “That says there is more to the story than the workouts. There is more going on that they aren’t telling us about … something else that sensitized them, perhaps, to the workout on Monday, and that is what tripped them into rhabdomyolysis.”
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Meanwhile, a joint news release Thursday from university President Sally Mason and the Iowa Board of Regents said an investigation into events that led to the athletes’ hospital treatment would be conducted over the next 90 days.
Gov. Terry Branstad said officials should ensure that a complete explanation of what happened to the football players, who have yet to be identified by the university, is shared with the public.
Branstad told reporters and editors of The Des Moines Register on Thursday that he had not talked with Mason or regents leaders about the situation, but that university officials are “concerned about the health and well-being of all students and certainly student athletes.”
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Iowa players described grueling workouts on Jan. 20 that included 100 weight-lifting squat repetitions, while timed.
Some Hawkeyes outlined difficulties standing or walking, and former Des Moines Lincoln star Jordan Bernstine characterized it on the social media site Facebook as the hardest workout of his life.
Arndorfer, however, said a workout like that sounds consistent with Iowa’s past programs — and workouts he has been involved in himself.
“I have had guys do that workout and I have done that workout myself, and it’s (tough), but there’s got to be some underlying reason” for the hospitalization, Arndorfer said. Iowa players “do that workout every year at this time and have not had any problems in the past.”
“I would have a couple of questions for the players,” he said. “One is: What were they doing Sunday or over the weekend? … Another is: Were any of them taking a supplement not given to them by the university?”
Doctors outlined other possible nontraining factors that could contribute to rhabdomyolysis — a condition that causes muscle fiber to break down and has possible effects that include kidney damage.
Dr. John Stokes of UofI Hospitals said at a news conference Wednesday that he had not seen that many cases at once in his more than three decades of work, but no reason was pinpointed to link the cases.
Iowa’s president outlined the goals of the investigation in Thursday’s news release.
“The primary aim of this analysis will be to identify, to the extent possible, the root causes of this incident in order to create and implement effective preventative measures to ensure this does not happen in the future,” Mason said.
The Register was unable to contact parents or relatives of the players to discuss possible activities outside workouts.
Derek Pagel, a former Iowa player under coach Kirk Ferentz and Doyle, was drafted by the National Football League’s New York Jets in 2003.
“That’s out of the ordinary, obviously,” Pagel, a former Hawkeye defensive back, said of doing 100 squat repetitions. “But we did similar things to that. The reps might not have been exactly 100, but it was a lot.
“There’s a method to what they do to make sure players are progressing. There are things they do to shock the body and shock the muscles, but it’s nothing to do with punishment — I know that. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we need more wins next year — let’s squat 100 times.’
“Coach Doyle knows what he’s doing, and he’s strategic. I know that without him, I probably wouldn’t have made it to the NFL.”
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Graves, who has specialized in treating forms of kidney disease and damage for nearly 30 years, said a range of factors including dehydration, illness or even playing pickup basketball could contribute to rhabdomyolysis.
“I’d want to question them intensely on what they were doing on the weekend and were they running on their own, were they playing pickup basketball, were they taking supplements,” he said. “I suspect there is more to this story.”
Ferentz, Doyle and Iowa athletic director Gary Barta have not returned calls seeking comment.
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Arndorfer, of Tulsa, said Doyle is very strict on do-it-right guidelines — and communicating with players.
“I know Doyle for a fact — he has it printed in manuals, et cetera — that if you want to take supplements, for example, you take only what we provide you at the University of Iowa.
“If they’re taking it, they’re doing it without his knowledge — and, actually, against their rules.”
Branstad, a walk-on baseball player at Iowa in early 1970s, said the number of athletes affected concerned him.
“This happened to 13 athletes, and that is a large number of people. It wasn’t just one person,” Branstad said.
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University doctors to lead inquiry
University of Iowa physicians will lead the inquiry into what led to the hospitalization of 13 members of the football team, the president of the Iowa Board of Regents said Thursday.
David Miles told The Des Moines Register he has confidence that the medical staff will provide a complete and independent assessment.
Miles said he thought the doctors at University of Iowa Hospitals “take their medical oaths very seriously, and they weren’t involved in any of the training. I have no reason to think they won’t be able to offer an independent opinion as to what happened.”
Miles said that he was informed of the problems Tuesday after a number of the players had been sent to the hospital following weekend workouts.
“Like everyone else, I was quite concerned about the number of players involved,” Miles said.
— Tom Witosky
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Fourth hospitalized player confirmed
The family of junior defensive back Willie Lowe told The Des Moines Register he is one of 13 University of Iowa football players still hospitalized following off-season workouts last weekend.
Lowe recorded eight tackles in eight games last season for the Insight Bowl-winning Hawkeyes.
The Register and the Iowa City Press-Citizen previously reported that Shane DiBona, Jim Poggi and Jordan Bernstine also are hospitalized. The university has declined to identify players being treated, citing student-privacy laws.
— Bryce Miller
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Iowa Hawkeyes Nerd, DMRsports. DMRsports said: [Hawkeyes blog] Did other factors affect stricken Hawkeyes? http://bit.ly/iatMzm #hawkeyes [...]
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This certainly is strange. Wondering if it is an issue related to food intake? Do all the players eat at the same place?
A bit unusual that Coach has not made a public comment about this. It seems like it is time for him to make a strong statement in support of finding the cause. I’m sure this will be viewed as a negative in the recruiting wars that are going on now. Hope they find the cause soon and put to rest some of the crazy rumors.
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Agreed. In this age of message boards and social media you can’t afford to remain silent. Just look at all the rumors that have been started on these pages in the last couple of days.
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I think the doctor may be alluding to drinking. I am not a rabdo expert but I know a girl who has gotten it twice. She works out very hard, but nothing that would be considered extreme. Both times she got it, she had been on a weekend bender and then had a hard workout on Sunday or Monday. When you go days without sleep and are dehydrated to begin with, it doesn’t take much.
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Making a statement without all the facts would be foolish.
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Excessive workouts, period. In an ostensibly healthy college football player, the amount and duration of trauma required to bring about this condition is significant and very painful. This is not a “good burn” or “pushing through fatigue,” but rather it is complete ignorance on the part of the trainers. The chemical reactions that produce a muscle contraction have distinct limiting factors.
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It’s ignorant for you to suggest that it’s workouts alone that caused this. There have been dozens of testimonies from former Hawkeye players that have all said the workout in question is/was the same thing they endured during their Hawkeye careers. There is obviously another factor that led to 13 disorders in 2 days, but none the previous 12 years.
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ichawkfan, many coaches and former athletes of all different schools have said on the radio and TV in interviews that they all do the same workouts so if this is so “excessive” why has it been going on for so long and at so many different programs? I am not saying that the guys who got hurt just couldn’t handle it but they had to be something else involved not just excessive workouts.
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look for statins or creatine in their supplement use.
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IF it was Creatine im sure this would have happened before.
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KF needs to give the players amnesty on anything they might have taken, so they can answer this question.
Considering what happened before the bowl, the kids won’t talk if they are afraid they will be punished.
The medical questions trump any team discipline issues.
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I find it highly unlikely that all 13 individuals would be willing to risk their health in the interest of protecting their playing career or the football program. Maybe some…but certainly not all. I’m sure the athletes are being completely honest. I sure as hell would be.
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Finally… a hint from someone that just maybe there are other factors involved. Ya think…? Of course there are other factors involved! This is what the doctors have been saying all along… there are other factors. PLEASE let them find that other factor(s) before all the comments that really make no sense, and just show how much some people, claiming to be fans, are not fans at all. Chris Doyle is an excellent strength and conditioning coach, and Kirk is an excellent head coach. Neither is knowingly going to put their players in danger. So… if you must expound upon something, let it be the father’s comments about what an excellent coach Ferentz is. OR…. get Barta to put the tiger hawk logo on the water tower. That is a far better topic, yet I do not hear anyone bantering that subject about? Why?
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Since so many of you have made comments on different articles that clearly show a lack of knowledge, I will continue making a comment that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of workouts. But first I wanted to say that, yes, Kirk is/was out of town visiting some very highly rated recruits that are thinking about Iowa as their future team. As signing day is Feb 2, the importance of these visits to the player’s home is self explanatory. But lets get back to the real topic… a tiger hawk on the water tower. A modestly sized logo on the water tower. It would not be expensive, but it would be a rallying point everytime the players enter the field. It would be a symbol of Hawk pride for all to see, especially on national tv.
As for the players… they are working their ***** off for us, the fans; and for a shot at at the NFL. Let’s just wait and see what the doctors find.
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I think the level of training in the 3 weeks after the bowl game leading up to the workout may have as much to do with the symptoms as the weekend after the workout. It seems to me this is te kind of workout used to get over a hurdle or sticking point, as much as it is a test of endurance and strength. The kind of effort required to successfully train through this type of intensity requires a trained athlete, in training. You can’t take 3 weeks off and then go to this intensity. It’s too long, you lose too much.
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“Coach Doyle knows what he’s doing, and he’s strategic. I know that without him, I probably wouldn’t have made it to the NFL.” – Derek Pagel
Uh, you would not have not made an NFL camp without the 2-deep zone coverage that Iowa secondary plays. Asking Mr. Pagel to come up and stuff the box and cover Big 10 TEs might not have afforded him the chance to get cut in Jets’ training camp.
But hey, I’ll still make bets on him if his future plans include re-establishing The Airliner and 1/2 priced pizza night.
Love you Ronnie, Daddy’s still so proud!
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Did the trial of Cedric Everson have anything to do with it? This was probably bad pubicity for program. Was this usual intensity for workouts at this stage or was intensity increased for any reason? Doyle/Ferentz,Barta silence does not help. Wouldn’t hold my breath waiting to hear any specifics from doctors.
lcvalin post at http://www.desmoinesregister.com
“I have no comment yet,” Johnson-Koulianos said by phone Monday.
I am currently reading Forty Million Dollar Slaves by William Rhoden.
http://www.amazon.com/Forty-Million-Dollar-Slaves-Redemption/dp/0609601202
The book would suggest that free speech is not part of the equation for black athletes.
Chapter 7 The Conveyor Belt: The Dilemma of Alienation
When you control a man’s thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him to stand here or go yonder. He will find his “proper place” and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.
—G/ Carter Wppdspm.
p 183 “This is what the Belt teaches you,” Webber added. “That one thing” As black men we can’t say what’s on our mind. You can never do that. I think you learn that on that Conveyor Belt, you learn you got to shut up, you learn you got to be politically correct. You learn you got to say these cliches. It’s [the message] on that Conveyor Belt since the eighth grade: Keep the trouble away from me.”
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The first quote above was the header for Chapter Seven and from book by G Carter Woodson–The Miseducation of the Negro
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The College of Pharmacy better check their drug supply. I have a feeling it might be depleted.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6068807
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