Quote:
Originally Posted by jefferyepayne
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
|
Right, that's a really good point Jeff. I actually did some research on players from the 30s that I'll share with the board before the end of the summer and I realized the same - for any career 3-4 years (even though that seemed short to me at first) I gave consideration to the player for my analysis. A lot of them had short careers/moved on like you said. Not sure of the effect of the depression - it could probably be argued some played a little longer due to lack of better alternatives - I have no idea on that one.
But Nevers? Such a huge name, I wouldn't have guessed that Grange's career was essentially twice as long..