“Dreaming of a lucrative NFL career is a relatively recent phenomenon,” say the authors. “In 1956, the minimum NFL salary was reported as $5,000,” but the kind of money that today’s young player gets is often more than he’s ever seen in his life. The NFL promotes financial responsibility, but a new hire often goes wild with new-found wealth; later, he might go broke. Being in the NFL, say the authors, is expensive.
When it’s over, that’s tough to take. Living without praise, paychecks, and the social structure within the NFL is a challenge—as is living with “a lifetime of hurt.” Almost 25 percent of all current former players claim game-related brain injuries. Surgery is “routine.” Some injuries are the result of a “suck it up” mentality: players are more likely to shake off an injury than to seek treatment for it, until it’s too late.
And those are just the physical ailments…
But the news isn’t all bad, and that’s the pleasant surprise inside “Is There Life after Football?”Using statistics you won’t see in the game, NFL history, and personal stories, this book offers a litany of things that should give fans pause: ruined lives for both players and families, ruined health, and financial ruin. But before we turn off the TV in dismay (just kidding!), we’re encouraged to lift our jaws off the floor with tales of success and of the men who’ve stepped off-field and into their own personal second half.
(“Is There Life after Football? Surviving the NFL” by James A. Holstein, Richard S. Jones & George E. Koonce, Jr., c.2015, New York University Press, $27.95/higher in Canada, 321 pages.)
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