Quote:
Originally Posted by DezHood
I picked up a couple of 55 AA cards in Steve Novella auctions recently. A couple of things jumped out at me:
-thought Nevers played more than 5 pro seasons
-had no idea Stanford used to be known as the Indians - was surprised to see that mascot on the card
-Henry's timing was pretty good - the start of his pro career lined up exactly with the start of the NFL in 1920
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There were lots and lots of really great players in the 20s and 30s who either didn't play professional football at all or had short careers and quit. I think it mostly had to do with deciding that it was time to find a career to pursue as playing football just wasn't lucrative enough to make it worthwhile for most. For those athletes not interested in business, law, or medicine, it seems like coaching / athletic administration was the field of choice and so a lot quit football to become coaches or went straight into coaching after college.
I can probably rattle off 10-20 players that, if they had just continued playing the sport, would be in the pro football HOF today.
jeff