NFL's highest-paid tight-end: yeah, he's vegan.

[flvegan]

Okay, almost.

NFL star Tony Gonzalez is out to answer a question: Can a football player live entirely on plants?
By REED ALBERGOTTI
January 25, 2008; Page W1

The protein-rich bounty of the football training table is supposed to grow the biggest and strongest athletes in professional sports. Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez was afraid it was going to kill him. "It's the Catch-22," says Mr. Gonzalez, 31. "Am I going to be unhealthy and play football? Or be healthy and get out of the league?"

So last year, on the eve of the biggest season of his career, Mr. Gonzalez embarked on a diet resolution that smacked head-on with gridiron gospel as old as the leather helmet. He decided to try going vegan.

Living solely on plant food, a combination of nuts, fruits, vegetables, grains and the like, has long been the fringe diet of young rebels and aging nonconformists. Even the government recommends regular helpings of meat, fish and dairy. Vegans of late have gotten more hip with such best sellers as the brash "Skinny Bitch," and its more scholarly cousin, "The China Study." Both books argue vegans can live longer.

But could an all-star National Football League player, all 6-foot, 5-inches and 247 pounds of him, live on a vegan diet and still excel in one of the most punishing jobs in sports?

Much more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120122116182915297.html

[Robeson]

1. I have respect for Tony. As an adult, he realized he needed to appreciate....

...his heritage. He didn't know Spanish well, if at all. He went to live with a Mexican family, and immersed himself into Spanish, and has since become a somewhat of a hero in Mexico. http://www.examiner.net/stories/080704/chi_080704019.shtml

I'm not surprised he's a vegan. He seems to be well grounded.