Cutting dead weight


A Jacksonville State University associate director of athletics has been shedding pounds on the reality TV show ‘‘The Biggest Loser.''

Unfortunately for Roger Shultz, the former Alabama offensive lineman-turned-JSU administrator, his new employer decided it needed to drop some extra weight as well.

Jacksonville State lost about 235 pounds when it fired Shultz earlier this month.

In essence, the university told Shultz he needed to make a choice between his job and his long-term health. Shultz, who had been hired five months ago to lead marketing and fundraising efforts for the athletic department, had been using sick leave to do the necessary training to shed pounds and stay in contention for the $250,000 prize that goes to the winner of "The Biggest Loser.''

"I feel like we did everything possible to allow this to happen for him, but there came a time and point that we need to move forward in our marketing and fundraising area,'' JSU athletic director Jim Fuller said in a statement released Thursday.

Shultz, an Enterprise, Ala., native, said there are no hard feelings over the firing.

"I was being a little selfish on this end of it,'' he told the Birmingham News. "I wanted to participate [in the show] and get my health back. I didn't know when I got there if I'd be there a week or 15 weeks."

The season finale of the TV show is scheduled to air on April 15, and Shultz would seem to be in prime position among its -- pardon the pun -- thinning herd.

After weighing in at a scale-straining 363 pounds on the first episode, Schultz had shed 127 pounds as of the last episode.