Pro Football Players

Every once in a while I hear people talking or see an article about the average male playing pro football. The thing I most recently saw was a survey in which over 50% of males said they could get a 3 yard run in the NFL. The people who answered yes to this have no clue. You could not even get a -3 yard gain in the NFL much less a positive gain.

The guys you watch on Sundays are the absolute most physically talent human beings on the planet. They are bigger, stronger, and faster than anyone you have ever met in your life. In the NFL you have 300lb men who can stand and do a backflip. A NFL cornerback could play any sport in the world and be successful at it. NFL players are regular winners on Dancing with the Stars and other reality shows because of their rare size and skills.

NFL players are not "dumb jocks" either. The guys who contribute significant time are well above average when it comes to IQ and Wonderlic scores. Both offenses and defenses in pro football are extremely in depth. They require players and coaches to devote 50+ hours a week of preparation for a 3 hour game.

There's a little over 1,000,000 males that play high school football with about a quarter of that being seniors. Between all the teams in division 1 football you have 10,080 total scholarships. Many of those are occupied by sophs, juniors, etc. You have around 2,500 scholarships available every year for incoming freshmen. That means around 1% of high school football playes will go play football at the division 1 level. Keep in mind that some people know they aren't going to play football after high school, but stats show between 55 and 65% of high school football players believe they can play college football.

The odds of going from college to pro are pretty small too. You will have roughly 3,000 people available for the NFL draft every year because you do not have to be a senior to declare. The NFL draft is 7 rounds of 32 picks totalling 224. If you play college football and apply for the draft you have a 7.5% chance of getting drafted. Yes there are some free agency players that make it and some people drafted get cut. The number of new players in the league every year is around 200. Summary to the above two paragraphs is that only .08% of high school football players will play in the NFl.

The NFL is the most competitive organization in the world. If you do not perform you are out. The pressure put on coaches and players by front office executives, fans, and media is at an all time high. The pressure to perform is providing us fans with quality entertainment. If you are reading this you could not get a 3 yard run in the NFL. You would not get back to the line of scrimmage and you would probably be hurt after the play.

My week four analysis will be posted sometime on Thursday with weekend picks being posted on Friday.

Thanks for reading... As always, email me if you have thoughts, ideas, or comments Wally146@aol.com