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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – We know keeping a check on your health is key, even more so if you spent a career making plays in the NFL. We’re On Your Side with how UAB recently teamed up a lot of former NFL players including a Crimson Tide standout to keep health at the top of their game plan.
Over his career, Antonio Langham has had some memorable moments with the Crimson Tide. One of the most notable is a pick 6 in the 1992 Iron Bowl. A week later, the hero of the first ever SEC championship game when he picked off another one. The Tide went on to to win the national title that season.
Langham went on to play seven seasons in the NFL with a handful of teams including the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens.
These days, the Bama legend lives in Birmingham and runs ACL Development and real estate. He’s still in pretty good shape. He says keeping his health at the forefront is key.
“Health is very important. Sometimes that’s the biggest thing we take for granted is our heath. The more you know, the more you can address at that point in time instead of waiting down the road until it’s too late,” Langham said.
Recently, Langham and more than three dozen retired NFL players and their wives received free health screenings at UAB thanks to a partnership between the hospital, the professional athlete’s foundation of the NFL Players Association and the Living Heart Foundation.
“We talked to them about their physical activity levels, their nutrition, their mental health. We talked to them about their sleep and other things that might go into a heathier lifestyle,” Dr. Irfan Asif, UAB’s Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine said.
Dr. Asif says the conversations around mental health actually proved to be very fruitful even if some of the retired players didn’t want to talk about it at first.
“It was nice to see some of the wives come and sometimes they gave them a little nudge about hey do you want to talk about this and I’d say that was probably the most meaningful experience for many of these athletes,” said Dr. Asif.
“Mental health is a big challenge and it was something that was needed. Are we where we want to be with it? No, but we’re addressing it and we’re making strides with it which is good,” Langham said.
Langham, who is president of the Birmingham chapter of the NFL players association, says athletes think they’re invincible and going to the doctor many not be high on their list. He says making your health a priority is one of the keys to the game plan we call life.
“I want guys to continue to get regular checkups. I had guys that said they haven’t had a regular checkup or a physical in almost two years or better. I’m like you need that every year,” Langham said.
Langham tells us some of the former players actually found out a few things during these screenings that they didn’t know about. That’s why he says its important to get a regular check up with your doctor. Dr. Asif says UAB has also been asked to do programming related to these screenings throughout the year to keep these athletes healthy.
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