Mississippi tabbed as top football state..

[Watchthemiddle]

The award salutes Mississippi as the nation's top football state following a study conducted by The Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. The project covered a variety of per capita criteria, including the percentages of collegiate and professional football fans, number of NFL players who hail from the state, percentage of high school football players in the state, and percentage of high school players who have letters-of-intent to play for NCAA Division I-A colleges and universities.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9619858

Not a bad list of NFL players to come out of Mississippi.

[Atlas]

Florida. texASS and California in that order.

[watermock]

I don't want to sound crass, but when I went thru Mississippi, there were kids too poor to even have a bycicle and ran like deer all over the place. It was south of Jackson I think...kids running like wild deer. I mean FAST. I'm not going to dig a hole for myself, but man...there are some real gazells down there. This kid ran in front of my car fearless at at lest 25 mph. I stopped because where there is one deer there are others...I creeped thru but he has alone. They are so poor a bicycle is a luxury. It's a travesty. The town was barely lit, I went to pee at Churches chicken and the rest room was CLOSED, It was pretty much anarchy on a friday night. I was happy to get out after filling up the car with fuel. One kid started a Ford Ranger and redlined it so hard just starting it I thought he was going to blow the engine right then and there. Reving an engine on startup is totally insane before oil can reach the heads. Redlining a cheap ford motor is equally stupid. I was nervous there. 4 miles away the truck stops glared in all their splendor.

All I am really saying is that many players have come from Mississippi. Karl Malone, Sharpe,TD, many others. I think Rice came from Missisppi.

[-Slap-]

Former and current NFL super stars who hail from the Magnolia State:

Walter Payton (Columbia) -- Named to Pro Football Hall of Fame
Jerry Rice (Crawford) -- NFL's all-time leading receiver
Lance Alworth (Brookhaven) -- Member of both the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame
Archie Manning (Drew) -- One of the greatest QBs in New Orleans Saints history
*Brett Favre (Kiln) -- NFL's only three-time MVP (1995-97)
L.C. Greenwood (Canton) -- Owns four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers
*Steve McNair (Mount Olive) -- NFL co-MVP in 2003
Jackie Slater (Jackson) -- Set NFL record for linemen by playing in 259 consecutive games
Hugh Green (Natchez) -- Two-time Pro Bowler with Bucs and Dolphins
*Eric Moulds (Lucedale) -- Three-time Pro Bowler currently with Texans
*Deuce McAllister (Lena) -- New Orleans Saints all-time leading rusher

Wow.

The greatest wide receiver ever.

Arguably, the greatest running back ever.

One of the top ten QBs of all time.

One of the top ten OTs of all time.

Arguably the greatest college linebacker ever.

Pretty damn impressive.

[Watchthemiddle]

Wow.

The greatest wide receiver ever.

Arguably, the greatest running back ever.

One of the top ten QBs of all time.

One of the top ten OTs of all time.

Arguably the greatest college linebacker ever.

Pretty damn impressive.


All that, labeled the best football state and not even a NFL franchise to go with it. Kind of strange if you ask me. Then again....football is IT in the south.

[Saddletramp]

Great find WTM I really hadnt put all this together til now. One wouldnt think Mississippi produces such talent til ya read this list.

[Kaylore]

Great find WTM I really hadnt put all this together til now. One wouldnt think Mississippi produces such talent til ya read this list.
Especially surprising since they're dead last in every other category and first in all the crappy ones (fattest, poorest, number of morons, etc.)

[Jason in LA]

Florida. texASS and California in that order.

I agree with those being the top three, but an argument can be made for any of them for being #1.

[footstepsfrom#27]

Florida. texASS and California in that order.

I think Texas is #1...it's a religion here. High school teams have stadiums that look like NCAA facilities. They care more about that than whether these kids can read or not.

[ward63]

Texas, Florida, California, Ohio, Louisiana would probably be my top 5.

[Kaylore]

Yes Slap, even the ginormous behemoths of Wisconsin take second place to the girth of mississippi:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4436638.stm


Inside the fattest state in the US
By Matthew Davis
BBC News, Jefferson County, Mississippi

Jefferson County is said to be the fattest part of the fattest state in the United States after a 2003 study found it had the highest proportion of obese residents in Mississippi.

The BBC News website went to find out why the area is a symbol of one of the country's fastest growing health problems.

It is lunchtime in Fayette, a tiny, sleepy town in the Mississippi Delta.

The patrons of Dude Burger - the only restaurant for miles - are buying hot dogs, dripping with chilli relish.

At the adjacent Supermarket and Deli, a customer walks through the car park, encumbered by two gallon tubs of ice cream.

Near a row of boarded-up shops, two men sit on the steps of the town courthouse, chewing jerky.

Apart from a few cars on Main Street, Fayette is broodingly silent. But it is a place that screams out poverty.


The taste of the individuals in this area comes from their experiences during slavery, the food that is eaten is of poor quality and rich in calories
Dr Frank McCune

A cultural problem

Average household incomes here are just $13,500 (£7,662) a year, and unemployment almost 20%.

Mayor Rogers King does not believe Jefferson County is the fattest place in Mississippi, but he knows there is a problem.

"It is not something we have realised is upon us for many years, but we are trying to do something about it," the mayor tells the BBC.

Home of the mud pie

Tiny Jefferson County Hospital sits on top of a hill on the outskirts of Fayette, opposite a school.

Construction worker in Fayette, Mississippi
Some say over-eating is ingrained into the culture of the area

It has a nutrition clinic, but it is conspicuously empty.

A poster advertising a weight loss class is taped to a one wall, urging participants to "Drop them pounds like they hot".

But this is not a message many people want to hear, according to Dr Frank McCune, the county's only obesity expert.

Mississippi is the home of the mud pie, of cajun fried pecans, sweet potato crunch, of fried shrimp and catfish - and Dr McCune says overeating is ingrained into the culture of the area.

"Some deny the fact that obesity is a problem," he says. "Many don't know what it is. Some of them think that being 5'4" (1.64m) tall and 225 pounds (102kg; 16st 1lb) is a normal weight.

"They deny the fact that certain foods are not healthy, they deny the fact that there are choices. Exercise has been viewed with scepticism."

"Some women who have entered the weight loss programme have been asked to leave by their husbands who say that they like them the way they are."

Outskirts of Brookhaven, just outside Jefferson County
Urban sprawl leads to greater car use and less activity, say experts
Jefferson County - population 6,700 - is the kind of place where drivers wave to you on the long, isolated country roads that link small towns like Fayette.

There simply aren't many places to stop and buy good food.

There are no fitness clubs at all in the county. At least a third of people here are said to take no exercise.

Yet poverty and inactivity are not the only explanations proffered for Jefferson's - and the Mississippi Delta's - problem with obesity.

Legacy of slavery

A few miles down the road is Rosswood Plantation, a historic cotton plantation mansion, now run as a guest house serving "full plantation breakfasts" on fine china, linen and silver.

Rosswood plantation
The Mississippi Delta was once home to many cotton plantations

Back in the 1850s more than 100 slaves worked the cotton fields on the 1,250-acre Rosswood farm, one of many such plantations along the Mississippi Delta.

Then the working day was long and arduous, the food basic but filling - gumbos, or stews thickened with okra, cornbread, beans and fish from the Mississippi.

Dr McCune's grandfather was born into slavery. His father saw mechanisation make redundant the harsh old jobs in the cotton fields.

But the doctor says the dietary legacy of those times persists.


We want our schools and our communities to buy into the idea that we must change our environment, but that will not happen overnight
Regina Ginn
Office for Healthy Schools

Growing problem

"The taste of the individuals in this area comes from their experiences during slavery, the food that is eaten is of poor quality and rich in calories.

"The food that is eaten is highly satisfying, highly filling but the food... that they eat in general is not balanced.

"The slaves had to eat the poorest quality food - they were maintained cheaply, therefore through years of eating that type of food, the people not only in this area, but in areas up and down the Mississippi River and where people migrated from have the same taste in food."

Ticking time bomb

For Regina Ginn, head of the state Office for Healthy Schools, the problem is not of the past, but of the future.

Nationally the problem of childhood obesity is seen by some as a ticking time bomb that the US has been slow to address.

Again, problems are particularly acute in Mississippi.

"We are having to take baby steps," Ms Ginn told the BBC.

"We want our schools and our communities to buy into the idea that we must change our environment, but that will not happen overnight."

Dr McCune is finishing a three-year study on obesity in middle schools in Jefferson. He fears the rate will be higher than anyone anticipates.

"I see people I first met as children having health problems now because of their weight, and I am afraid that unless we change our attitudes then the situation will only be worse for their children."

[cr8f]

Especially surprising since they're dead last in every other category and first in all the crappy ones (fattest, poorest, number of morons, etc.)



Life is so bad they play sports to get out. Not a recommendation for any positive in the state.

[-Slap-]

Average household incomes here are just $13,500 (£7,662) a year, and unemployment almost 20%.
How can some of these folks afford to get fat? Those Dude Burgers aren't free, you know?

[Atlas]

How can some of these folks afford to get fat? Those Dude Burgers aren't free, you know?

Yeah but gravy and potatoes is dirt cheap

[worm]

Life is so bad they play sports to get out. Not a recommendation for any positive in the state.

Thats it! You nailed it CR8F!!! Life is so bad they play sports to get out!

That is why there are many millionaire professional atheletes that go back there after they finish their careers.

People like Archie Manning, Will Clark, should-be-retired-already Brett Farve and many, many more select places in Mississippi and Louisiana to call home after they hang it up.

Must be they like all those Dude Burgers...OR maybe you just can't sum up a place on a purely quantitative economic basis.

Maybe there are things about family, friends and community that supercede annual income.

Here is a reality check for you CR8F...outside of the white-bread vanilla suburb I am SURE you live in with mommy and daddy....life is hard in ANY economically depressed area.

Mississippi doesn't have a monopoly on poor. And where there is poor, there will be people looking to better themselves...either through sports, education, or any one of a number of illicit behaviors.

Maybe you should visit the State before you make broad sweeping generalizations about why people play sports there.

[Natedog24]

All that, labeled the best football state and not even a NFL franchise to go with it. Kind of strange if you ask me. Then again....football is IT in the south.


Wrong, you forgot about the great american snooze fest NASCAR :alghh: and the err :mullet1: fans :mullet1: in has in the south.

[SteveTensi13]

Love your avatar there saddletramp!!