NFL Training Camp Spotlights a Lap Band Success Story

With Wimbledon over, the World Cup coming to a grand finale and Major League Baseball's All Star game on deck, it can seem Americans are up to their necks in sports. However something major still looms: the start of training camp for the upcoming National Football League season.

American football, with the NFL as its showcase, is arguably the most popular sport in the nation. With training camps set to start at the end of the month, players and most involved with the professional league will have the spotlight shined brightly on them.

Fans can wonder if their favorite player did anything special over the off-season to gain an edge once real games begin in early fall.

Someone who made the news recently was New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, who had a lap band surgery in 2010. Since then, he says he's lost 130 pounds.

Before the surgery, a doctor asked him how many people he knows who weigh 350 pounds who are over 50 years old. "Not many," Ryan responded.

The doctor replied, "Yeah, because they don't exist." Ryan told CBS Sports that it was then he knew he had to do something.

That something was lap-band surgery for significant weight loss and the associated health benefits.