Roman Gabriel and Death from “Natural Causes”

Roman Gabriel was a quarterback in the National Football League for 16 years, with the Los Angeles Rams from 1962 to 1972 and the Philadelphia Eagles from 1973 to 1977. In 1969 he led the NFL with 24 touchdown passes and was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. He was in the Pro Bowl in 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1973. At the height of his football career, he appeared in the movie, “Skidoo,” starring Jackie Gleason in 1968, and “The Undefeated” starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson in 1969.

On April 20, 2024, he was reported to have died of “natural causes” at age 83. Three years earlier, he had told the Los Angeles Times that he was “retired with heart problems and arthritis but happy.”

Early Years and Career in Pro Football
Gabriel was born in 1940 in Wilmington, North Carolina, to a Filipino immigrant father and an American mother. He suffered from asthma but was an outstanding high school football player. He won a scholarship to North Carolina State University, was twice an All-American and Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, and held just about every school passing record. He was also an outstanding baseball player and was voted the best amateur athlete in the Carolinas. In 1989, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Los Angeles Rams drafted him and he went on to an outstanding career from 1962 to 1973, passing for 22,223 yards and 154 touchdowns. In 1973, he led the NFL with 3,219 yards and 23 touchdown passes. After the 1972 season, the Rams hired Chuck Knox to be their new coach and he brought in John Hadl to be their new quarterback. The L.A. Rams traded Gabriel to the Philadelphia Eagles where he was voted to the Pro Bowl for the fourth time and the “Comeback Player of the Year” by Pro Football Weekly.

Life After Retiring from Football
After his playing career, Gabriel had a brief career as a member of the NFL on CBS broadcasting team from 1978 to 1979. From 1980 to 1982, he coached football at Cal Poly Pomona, where his teams won eight games and lost 24. The school then gave up their football program and he went on to become an unsuccessful coach at two losing professional teams. He then was a frequent guest on several television talk shows.

Death from “Natural Causes”
The news media reported that on April 24, 2024 at the age of 83, he died from “natural causes”. I have not seen his medical records so I have no news about the cause of his death. In 2021, he told the news media that he had heart problems and arthritis.

The leading causes of death in older North Americans include:

• heart failure (20.0 percent),
• dementia (13.6 percent),
• chronic lower respiratory disease (12.4 percent),
• pneumonia (5.3 percent),
• cancer (5.6 percent),
• acute kidney injury, stroke, septicemia, liver disease, myocardial infarction, unintentional injuries (J Am Geriatr Soc, 2012 Aug; 60(8): 1448–1456).

Death from “Natural Causes” usually means death from inactivity. When you read about people dying of “natural causes,” it usually means that they died of heart failure because they spent their last years lying in bed. When you become inactive, you lose your skeletal muscles at an alarming rate, and losing skeletal muscle causes loss of heart muscle until your heart can become too weak to pump blood to your brain so you die.

Keep on moving if you can. People who walked at least 8,000 steps per day just one or two days a week had a 15 percent lower death rate over the next 10 years, compared to people who walked less than that (JAMA Netw Open, Mar 29, 2023;6(3):e235184). People who had 3-7 days with 8,000 steps or more had an additional reduction in death rate. This suggests that moving around helps to prolong your life, even if you don’t have an organized exercise program. People who have jobs that require sitting all day can still benefit from being active on weekends. You cover about four miles when you take 8,000 steps.

Loss of Muscle with Aging is Common
Between 25 and 50 percent of North Americans over the age of 65 suffer from severe loss of skeletal muscle (sarcopenia) that is significant enough to limit their daily activities (J Am Geriatr Soc, 2004;52:80–85). A regular exercise program is the best way to slow down this loss of strength and coordination, but even if you exercise regularly, you will still lose muscle as you age (Aging Male, September-December 2005). After age 40, people lose more than eight percent of their muscle size per decade and by age 70, the rate of muscle loss nearly doubles to 15 percent per decade, markedly increasing risk for disability and disease (Am J Epidemiol, 1998;147(8):755–763; Nutr Rev, May 2003;61(5 Pt 1):157-67).

My Recommendations
A key to prolonging your life and preventing disease is to keep on moving. Lying in bed for many hours each day is a certain way to hasten your death. Each day that you spend not moving your muscles weakens your heart, muscles and bones until eventually you can die of heart failure. You do not need to have to have a specific exercise program (although I recommend having one), but try to stay active for a large part of each day.

Roman Gabriel
August 5, 1940 – April 20, 2024