Rest in Peace Hefty Lefty!

Rest in Peace Hefty Lefty!

I won’t sit here and lie and tell you a was a Jerad Lorenzen fan. I wasn’t. As a matter of fact I disliked him, greatly because he was born on the wrong side of the Ohio River. I’ve never made my dislike of Kentucky a secret. Whether it be one corrupt basketball coach after corrupt basketball coach, the fact they believe the movie Deliverance is a live story, the love of a horse race with stupid hats, the simple fact a girl from their once broke my heart, or inbreeding, if Lannisport was in the US there is no doubt it would be in Kentucky. I didn’t root against Lorenzen but I never cheered for him either.  Perhaps I should have, we should have been brothers and in a lot of ways we were.


So I am not sure why when I went to ESPN yesterday and saw that he had gone to the clearing at the end of the path why it hit me so hard. Other than the fact that he died from heart related complications due to morbid obesity.  It seems like the player they referred to as the Hefty Lefty had a lot in common with the man I often refer to as the Mountain that Swims. 

I am not Jared Lorenzen’s biographer.  I don’t a lot about it him, however, I do know that for most of his life he struggled with his weight.  That is one striking similarity the two of us share.  I to have lots of heart issues right now due to my obesity, so perhaps I am looking in a mirror to my future when I see a man 6 years my junior succumbs to heart failure.  

I sit her and wonder if his demons where much like mine?  How could they be?  This is a man who once stood on the sidelines of the NFL while won of the greatest Super Bowls in history unfolded in front of our eyes.  While I was sitting shirtless with my pants on my head drinking scotch like it was water, this man was lean, backing up one of the legendary Manning Boys. 

Did the Hefty Lefty have a binge eating issue much like me?  Did he constantly doubt that he would ever come out on the other side of obesity?  Was he obdurate and stubborn like me and just refuse to have weight loss surgery b/c he knew there was a bigger issue than hunger that drove him to abuse his body with calories? 

I don’t know that answer to any of those questions. I don’t have a magic answer of how I will keep myself going for what I hope is long after the Hefty Lefty is set to rest.  What I know is what ever his demons where they can’t reach him now.  He has passed on to a place where size and shape don’t matter.  I know he will find peace there. 

I watched videos of him yesterday.  I heard his struggles and his reasons for wanting to drop the weight.  I have lost 80 lbs like him before, only to stumble and put it back on and then put on eve more.  I feel a kinship now to him that I wish I had known about before.  Not that it would have changed anything for either of us.

So, where do we go from here?  I don’t really know.  I know the question out there from you dear reader is what are you going to do, what is your next step so you the Mountain that Swims doesn’t end up like the Hefty Lefty?  What will you do before it is too late?  I don’t know.  I sit here with tears in my eyes that just won’t fall.  With a burning passion to change what has been and what will be. 

However, none of that matters on this July 4 in this year of two thousand and nineteen.  What matters is wishing the Hefty Lefty peace.  Sending positive vibes to his family and loved ones.  That is what matters today.  I just wanted to pay my respects to someone I consider a fallen brother.  Rest well now and find you way to peace in the great infinite beyond.  Death isn’t the end it is just the next step on this journey that we call existence.  Rest now brother, rest.