Rip Junior Seau

That sounds like an issue with a bunch of different professions. Doesn't have to be stardom, could be power (cops, judges, politicians, surgeons). We just know about the athletes.

Good grief... He'd have hanged himself or slit his wrists or taken an overdose or something. Dude wants to off himself, he'll find a way. If he wanted his brain studied, a shot to the chest was the best method.

 

You almost have it right, but NFL's dominance of the sports landscape is a relatively new phenomenon, and every step up has come with advances in communication.

What's happened in the last 15 years or so are Internet, enabling fantasy football and offshore gambling, and the explosion in cable/satellite
TV (and I'd argue HD has helped football more than any other big 4 sports).

 

I think it's especially intense for football players, because retirement happens so early, and it's way more regimented and team oriented than most other professions.


These guys finish their careers in their late 20s to mid 30s, if they're good. That's an age where most careers are hitting their stride. But for football players, that's when everything they've been living for up to that point is rendered meaningless.

Suddenly, the income is gone, the crowds are gone, the coaches who would get on your ass about your weight are gone. Did you ever read Walter Peyton's biography (or the excerpts published in SI)? It paints a pretty bleak picture of retired life, and Peyton was one of the better adjusted ones.

 

Well, yeah, it's way bigger. But people aren't more passionate- there's just more people who are passionate. And a big part of that is because they're now able to commuicate with other passionate people. The NFl's dominance of the American sports landscape isn't a show of more passion- it's one of numbers.

I think it just means that they have more time left to live with the effects than others do. I'm saying that it's like other careers in that some of them are going to have trouble as long as what they do makes them big. As long as a higher level of money/fame/respect/adoration comes with the career, it's going to be an issue. Ultimately, dealing with that means making the game less of a big thing at every level. I don't have an answer about how to do that.

 

I've never met a surgeon or judge who retire at 35. Cops, sure at 45, but they weren't the center of the universe from the time they were 15 years old. Read the link below. If you don't have your shit together, you can mentally slip.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/s...-is-retired-and-getting-tired-of-it.html?_r=3

 

I found it amazing watching Wisconsin last fall and seeing a player named 'Toon' on the field. As a lifelong Jet fan, I saw most of the hits that eventually had Al Toon sitting in a dark room for 3 years. Shocking to see his son playing the game (he was drafted last month).

Will any lawsuits be taken out against colleges like they are in the NFL? The lesser known players get hurt too.

 

Man, I had the EXACT same reaction. And I must have seen only 3 college games last year that did not involve UVA, and this was my most lasting memory of the season. The internet is a strange, strange thing....

 

While I can't speak for the passion, and I don't disagree with you a whole lot on that, but to say NFL's dominance is one of numbers ignores the depth of the fandom.

NFL used to be a 6-month affair, with nothing really happening between the Super Bowl and preseason - that's why SI came up with the swimsuit issue, to get through that one month before pitchers and catchers report.

Now, NFL is a year round league, thanks to ESPN's coverage of the draft and free agency. And people are more invested now. 20 years ago, semi-committed fans didn't get defensive schemes and 3-technique linemen and the name of Cleveland's third string WR. Fans might not be more passionate, but they're more intellectually invested. That's happened to all sports to some degree, but I'd argue that it's happened the most in the NFL with the sheer amount of coverage.

 

BTW, I just realized why great players don't become coaches. In fact many of the league's best coaches haven't played a single down of big time football, college or pro.

 

...and that would be....

I think it is for the simple reason that the game came too easily for them. Even the ones with a great work ethic, who you know took the game and the process seriously, have trouble relating with players who can't do what they did. This is true in most sports, not just football. Off the top of my head, the only really great player who made a great coach that I can think of right now is Larry Bird. OK, Cruyff had some success at Barcelona, but he's left of trail of tears in his wake ever since. I know there are others, just can't think of them right now.

Shouldn't surprise anyone, though. The skill set to being a great player is markedly different from that of being a good coach.

 

most of them played in college. But to your point, they weren't stars. Perhaps a backup at a DI school or a decent player at a DIII school.

 

IIRC the brain changes have now been detected in people whose peak was as benchwarmers in high school, and even in an adolescent who only played Pop Warner. My understanding is that they are observable to some extent in almost every pro player whose brain has been examined. Its not just the long careers and the stars.

Now that we know that Lou Gehrig-- a fullback at Columbia-- probably did not have Lou Gehrig's disease, I think it is likely that the famous 49ers cluster of the 70's or 80's did not either-- those likely were post-concussion symptoms as well (in my unqualififed opinion.)

 

I don't think there's as huge a gap between the accomplishments as a player and coach.

You look at the Super Bowl winning coaches from the last 10 years - Mike Tomlin, Bill Belicheck, Sean Payton, Mike McCarthy and John Gruden all attended small schools, and besides Sean Payton's 3 games as a replacement player, they don't have a single NFL snap between them. Tom Coughlin went to Syracuse but didn't play pro ball. Only Tony Dungy and Bill Cowher went to major conference schools and played significant snaps in the NFL.

Contrast that with championship winning NBA coaches during the same span - Larry Brown, Rick Carlisle, Pat Riley and Doc Rivers all played for major programs and had solid or better NBA careers. Phil Jackson played at North Dakota but had a long NBA career. Only Greg Popovich is the kind of coaching lifer that's more common in the NFL.

 

Legends get frustrated trying to get great players to do what they used to be able to do. Magic Johnson failed miserably with the Lakers. Two exceptions I can think of are Larry Bird, who did not prevent the Pacers from reaching the NBA Finals in 2000, and Diego Maradona, who helped Argentina to a quarterfinal finish at the 2010 Cup.

 

A football coach is, by definition, not a nerd.

I think this site has you a bit twisted as to what time it is when you're offline.

 

I've addressed this, kinda, but "great" is probably the wrong word. I meant "guys who had long and/or solid careers".

In every sport, there are always players that observers point to and say, "That guy, he'd make a good coach". Think guys like Joe Torre, Pep Guardiola and Avery Johnson. That's rarely/never the case with NFL. And it's not like NFL players are dumbasses - they have to master complex playbooks, and particularly at positions like QB and MLB, being able to read the game is hugely important. But they never make that transition.

Yeah, part of it is that the game planning is complex and cerebral. But I'm also thinking most of these guys' brains are mush.

 

Our opinions differ on Maradona. Maradona barely got Argentina through CONMEBOL qualifying and got a team in the round of 16 that is snakebit in the knckout rounds.


But I agree with in on the rest

RIP Junior

 

They're geeks, not nerds.

Anyway, I just find it fascinating that a sport with such a strong "You don't understand if you haven't been in the trenches" ethos is dominated coaches who haven't played major conference college ball or the NFL.

 

The biggest factor in my opinion was racism, which is why the Rooney rule exists in the NFL. Mike Ditka, Steve Spurrier, Mike Singletary, Tony Dungy, Jim Harbaugh- you can be a good player and go into coaching, but the path to becoming a NFL head coach versus being a college coach or being a position coach or coordinator in the NFL is a long one and until recent years there was a bias against younger coaches. You had to put in your dues and have experience working your way up the ladder. Since so few black head coaches were being hired, why would a former player try to put in decades of their lives after their career was over if the door at the end of the tunnel was closed? Going into TV work, coaching at the college level, or going into another line of business were more inviting options. Now that the old conventional wisdom that blacks can't be coaches (many people didn't think they could even be QBs) has largely been discarded, the path to becoming a head coach is more open to players. So, now you see coaches like Leslie Frazier get a chance. But, guys like that have been coaches for over 20 years- former players going into coaching today could still be a decade or two away from being in line to be head coaches.

Sure, some former players may have long term health issues that could negatively affect many types of post playing career endeavors, including coaching. But, it isn't like 100% of NFL players are in that category.

 

It's become more of a CEO kind of job rather than a pure Xs and Os job. The coaching ranks used to have more former players than it does now. And to piggy on what you said before, the growth of cable and of the fanbase has created jobs that didn't exist 30 years ago. Former players end up on ESPN and other analysis shows now.

Doesn't matter how you qualify- just that you do. Argentina's good enough to play Mexico well even if El Tri wasn't snakebitten. And CONMEBOL WCQ is no joke- Felipao barely got Brasil thru 2002 WCQ but managed to be successful in the tournament itself.

Because it's football. In this country, nothing associated with football is nerdy.

 

Although the list of exceptional coaches has many who didn't play in the NFL, there are still plenty of guys who had decent NFL careers, or played in the NFL but we're good enough to hang on for a long term career who are/were good or great coaches (.500+ career record). That list includes the likes of:

Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll, Mike Tomlin, Jeff Fisher, Ken Whisenhunt, Lovie Smith, Mike Ditka, Bill Cowher, Jack Del Rio, Tom Flores, Tom Landry, Dick LeBeau (*although not a great head coach he is the best DC ever), Art Shell, Chuck Noll, Marty Shottenheimer, Don Shula. I almost want to put Dave Wannstadt who coached for 10+ years which is pretty good even though his record was sub .500.

So although they're not plentiful they do exist, plus there were guys like Norm Van Brocklin who wasn't a good coach but was a good player.