The Times they aren't a changing

Fatball

One needn't be able to touch one's toes to score a touchdown. Nevertheless, football players have long been wrestling with their weight -- both how to put on the pounds and how to take them off -- ever since the sport's earliest days.

In today's Times Jere Longman tells of an unsettling new trend that high school athletes feel they must gorge themselves in order to make the team.

Putting on Weight for Football Glory

By JERÉ LONGMAN

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 29 — When the Desire Street Academy football team plays in a Louisiana state semifinal playoff game Friday night, the Lions will feature three starting linemen who weigh at least 300 pounds and two others who weigh 270 and 280 pounds, reflecting a trend in which high school players are increasingly reaching a size once seen almost exclusively among linemen in college and the N.F.L.

For more than a century coaches have fought with players over their weights, although there has been some disagreement as to whether or not more is more.

March 20, 1905
NO FAT MEN FOR FOOTBALL
 
Heavyweights for Harvard’s Team Put to Work in Gymnasium
 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 19.—Whatever else may be said of Harvard’s football team next year, “Dill” Reid, the new head coach has determined that it shall not be call a “team of fat men.” Reid has put all the heavyweight candidates to work in the Hemenway gymnasium, pulling on weight machines and lifting heavy dumbbells to reduce their girths. The move is without precedent in Harvard’s history, for although football demands more of its men than any other game, little or no preliminary training has been considered necessary.

The more extreme view is that football is a game designed for the overweight. An article published on February 10, 1910 under the headline “A game for fat boys,” quoted Yale athletic adviser Walter Camp expressing the benefits of fatness in football:

Perhaps one point has not received its full emphasis. The game has furnished an opportunity not offered in any other sport for the big, overgrown fat boy, who before the introduction of the game had no field in which he could shine, and hence too little incentive to exercise.

Incensed that Camp would call for the elimination of the forward pass in order to help obese players, the writer lashed back:

Mr. Camp seems to have much solicitude for fat boys and perhaps he has an underlying concern for the principle of crude selection.

Striking out with the tax man

Tax officials are gunning for Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who despite spending much of the year in his posh Manhattan apartment claims Florida residency in order to avoid paying higher New York city and state taxes:

State Tax Officials Dispute Claim of Florida Residency by Jeter

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

ALBANY, Nov. 15 — New York State tax officials say that the Yankee star Derek Jeter claimed he lived in Florida to avoid paying city and state income taxes for several years, when he was actually living in New York, according to documents filed last week with an administrative law judge.

Mr. Jeter, one of the highest-paid players in baseball, filed nonresident income tax returns to New York State between 2001 and 2003, claiming that he lived primarily at his off-season home in Florida, which, unlike New York, has no state income tax.

But officials at the State Division of Taxation and Finance argued that Mr. Jeter’s primary residence during those years was in New York, where he owns an apartment in the Trump World Tower, near the United Nations, and has rented or owned other living space as well.

But the tax man clearly is not a baseball fan. Even back when players were making only four- or five-figure salaries, the city and state wanted a piece of the action, and would not make exceptions for those who claimed to be out of town residents.

September 6, 1919
BASEBALL INCOME TAXABLE

Players and Umpires Earning $1,000 in New York Must Pay

It was ruled by State Controller Travis yesterday that professional baseball  players and umpires employed during the past season, although residents of other States, are liable to the new State Income Tax Law. His decision was made in answer t numbers of inquiries received by the Controller's office both in the city and in Albany from those interested. Baseball officials were advised that the statute requires them, acting as withholding agents, to deduct and withhold a tax based upon the amount earned by their employees within the State.