Football đ is by far the biggest sport in the US. Most male students dream of playing football. There are about 73,000 male athletes in the NCAA. While some don’t intend to make a career out of it, many do. But playing football isn’t very good for your future.
Getting drafted into the NFL is extremely competetive. Making it among the less than 300 draft picks out of 73,000 athletes is no easy feat. The problem is that football isn’t a global sport unlike basketball or soccer. If you’re not drafted, there’s little else you can do with your skills. Whereas athletes who are good at basketball, soccer or golf stand the chance to go and play in other countries if they don’t cut it in the US.
Even if you’re among the elite players that are lucky enough to get drafted, the average NFL career is only about 3½ years. NFL players make a lot but they also live expensive lives. 3½ years isn’t a lot to make money that can sustain you for decades. One surbey showed that up to 78% of NFL players face financial distress after leaving the league.
College football is also very physically and mentally demanding. College football players end up majoring in “easier” degrees. It’s rare for them to balance their demanding athletic schedules with harder degrees like STEM, which have better career prospects. Hence they (often) get less marketable degrees while doing a very competitive sport where it’s hard to reach the top. If they don’t go pro, they also don’t have a hugely desirable degree. Lose-lose.
Lastly, football is a violent game. You’re likely to have long term health effects as a football player. A 2017 study showed that 99% of NFL players had various stages of degenerative brain disease related to trauma.
Male students are better off playing basketball, soccer and other sports. Football only pays off for the elite few who become the best of the best. Everyone marvels at how football is cool and pays well, but that is only true for a very small minority of successful players.
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Football = Brain injuries, hard pass. I know in the US it’s culture, but it’s just bad and it’s crazy to me that people would still be encouraging their kids to do it.
Being a local celebrity amongst peers and coeds, getting a free college education, getting a chance to continue chasing your life dream, and recently making a bunch of money from NIL deals isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be I guess
Honestly football sounds like a straight-up scam unless youâre like insanely good. You risk your whole body and future for a tiny shot at making it.
In soccer, your intelligence and vision to build 3D models in your head are more important than your height or strength.
You would be doing your child a disservice grooming him or her to play any other sport unless your son is 6’5 or muscles like hulk hogan.
You shouldn’t play a sport for pro potential because odds terrible for anybody. Should play because it’s fun. Football is fun. As a side benefit it gets a lot of people free college and a great college experience as the big man on campus.
Most people who choose to play sports know they aren’t going pro. They do it for the love of the game. That doesn’t mean it’s “good” or worth it to them.
Some of your stats are wrong or misleading – the brain study you alluded to actual refers only to players who died and had their brains examined, this is not necessarily representative of all former players. Itâs a self-selecting group of players who suspected they had CTE before they passed away.
The total number of football players includes all three levels of NCAA football – itâs likely that most DII and DIII players know they are not making the NFL. There are players like a friend of my sonâs – he got into Cornell because of football. He played very little but stayed on the team all four years. He knows he will not be going to the NFL. All of his Cornell teammates know they wonât make the NFL.
There are definitely players who think they will go pro, and many of them will not. But the majority of college football players know they arenât making it.
Most college athletes will not make a living out of their sport. Most of them know that.
What a dork. Egghead likes his booky wook.
Not to mention maintaining a football team is a huge expense for the college that without variance gets passed along to its tuition-paying students.
99% of NCAA football players arenât delusional enough to think theyâre going pro btw. Most of them just love playing it and will take the free education along w it.