Trials, tribulations of being an NFL player

FROM MY FRONT PORCH

Trials, tribulations of being an NFL player

SAM HOUSTON

Sam Houston is the publisher of the Hood County News. He is also an actor, author, playwright, performer and entertainment producer/promoter.

The NFL season is about to begin, with the Cowboys opening the season against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs on Sunday night. I am a big baseball fan, but for my money, the NFL has surpassed Major League Baseball as the national pastime. Seems like almost everybody is a football fan. Between the fantasy football leagues, the gambling on game results, to the casual fans, tens of millions are glued to the TV screen whenever an NFL game is being played.

We non-professionals like to complain about how much the players get paid. Generally, I think people are envious to see grown men getting paid so much money to play a “game.” Secretly, the fans imagine themselves in their high school playing days, and then picture being out on the NFL field, receiving those huge game checks for tens of thousands of dollars. For some reason, folks focus on what the players make, and never what the team makes because of the players. People work hard at their jobs, and I can understand why some are envious of the money paid to professional athletes — but it sure looks to me like NFL players earn every nickel.

Playing professional football is a tough, difficult job. To begin with, the damage the game does to players bodies is significant. Each year, players get bigger, stronger and faster, which means the collisions have more force and impact. Just to get to the NFL means a player has gone through high school games, college games and an untold number of practices. All the high-impact collisions add up, and a player’s body pays a price. According to a University of North Carolina study, the life expectancy for former NFL players is just 55 years? That is more than 20 years less than the rest of the population!

Did you realize the average NFL career is only 3.3 years? At the same time, the average NFL salary is $860,000 per year. Yes, that is a lot of money, but if the average player only works for 3.3 years, it is not much spread over the rest of your life.

As I watched the last minutes of the Cowboys’ final exhibition game, I could not help but think about the young men fighting for a job on the team. At the start of training camp, each team has 90 players, which had to be cut down to a final 53 the week before the season starts.

This means 37 men who had trained all their lives for a chance to play in the NFL were going to be sent home. All the workouts, weightlifting and running they endured will be for naught. The dreams of those 37 men will be dashed on the rocks of failure. They gave it their all, and then were told their best is not good enough. Hard to watch anyone’s lifelong dream become unreachable.

Even if a man makes the team, his future is not certain. He can be inured, to never play again. If a player has a couple of bad games, he can be “waived” and sent home. Former NFL Coach Jerry Glanville once said, “The NFL stands for NOT FOR LONG.”

You either produce, and keep producing, or you are out of the league. I wonder how many of us face that sort of pressure daily and how we would respond if we did. Sounds like a tough life to me.

I love my football and I am going to enjoy the game this Sunday night. I look forward to the next 18 weeks of watching the regular season and learning what teams make the playoffs. Eventually, there will be a new Super Bowl champion. I hope it is the Cowboys, but my betting money is staying in my pocket. I have been disappointed too many times.

Thanks to the players who risk their safety and health to play the game I enjoy so much. They earn every red cent.

Thought for the day: The coaches who can outline plays on a chalkboard are a dime a dozen. Winning coaches are the ones who can motivate their players to become champions.

Until next time.

sam@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 260