Sept. 29, 2010
Football Coach Robbie Caldwell joined Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs Dr. Jeffrey Balser, Susan Cooper, Tennessee Commissioner of Health, and Dr. Wayne Riley, CEO of Meharry Medical College, Sept. 27 to discuss the state of men’s health in Tennessee.
Over the past decade, Vanderbilt, Meharry and the State of Tennessee have been studying men’s health within the state and the 2010 Report Card they announced is dismal with many D and F overall grades.
Caldwell compared good health habits to a winning game plan in sports, mixing his home spun humor with common sense habits and observations from his playing and coaching career. The Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card – goals set in 2003 to be attained in 2008 – were mixed but mostly disappointing.
Robbie mentioned some of the fitness things he and his coaches are doing to stay in shape – eating right, walking or jogging, lifting weights.
He mentioned the discipline it takes to do right but that his motivation is for his wife and daughter. He admitted that he used smokeless tobacco for too many years (“I’m not proud of that”) but gave it up eight years ago.
He drew laughs inside the Old Supreme Court Chambers of the State Capitol when he claimed he got nervous when he heard they were going to talk about report cards!
(Photo caption: Caldwell with Susan Cooper, Tennessee Commissioner of Health)
