Articles about red wine and longevity tend to feature beautiful, and/or Photoshopped, sexagenarians looking strangely wrinkle-free and holding a glass of Cabernet on a Connecticut porch somewhere. We like this one better. Fully-muscled, delightfully tight pants-ed NFL Viking’s cornerback Terence Newman spilling the secret to his career longevity (at 37, he’s the oldest cornerback in the league): red wine.
“Red wine is the key,” Newman told Twincities.com. “Get it in your veins, baby. Keeps you strong.” Honestly, even more than the anti-aging (and recent acne-fighting) promise of resveratrol, Newman’s story inspires a bit more solid faith in the heart-healthy mystique of red wine. And it’s not just because he’s entering his 13th year as an NFL player (he spent nine with the Cowboys and three with the Bengals before coming to the Vikings.) It’s not even because he led the Cowboys in interceptions for five seasons, or started all 16 games for each of his first four NFL seasons. It’s because Newman’s been injured—a lot—and keeps coming back to play.
Seriously, if there’s any case to be made for the power of red wine, would you rather hear it from someone who sits around in a variety of shawls applying skin creams and sipping (carefully) on a glass of Merlot, or a guy with cumulative heel, groin (as in multiple groin), and rib injuries who’s made it to two Pro Bowls in one of the most physically punishing sports there is? Not that Newman’s a spokesman, so far as we know, or a medical doctor, or even a wine lover, necessarily. But in the beer-iest of sports, there’s a wine drinker on the field. And, apparently, it shows. “He’s got something special going on,” Vikings safety Harrison Smith told Twincities. “We’re all trying to get his secrets.” Touchdown for red wine. (We had to.)
