I am european and I live in Europe following both soccer and football.
One thing that is interesting to me is that in Europe there are so many former star players that became coaches. Some of them have been very successful coaches. Others less so. But the point is a lot become coaches. And Head Coaches nonetheless. I can list like 15-20 people without even thinking too hard.
In football, that seems to not be the case. People like Prime and DeMeco Ryans are the exceptions.
It is a two part issue 1) why are former top players not interested in being coaches 2) why are teams not offering top gigs to former players straight up
Let’s look at two current examples. Bills OC job and the Texas A&M job. Both of these jobs are highly desirable and pay well. A&M likely $10 mil +.
Why are people like Larry Fitzgerald, Rivers, Demarcus Ware, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, Mannings, Brady, Revis not interested and not being offered these jobs straight up?
I can easily see Messi or Ronaldo coaching down the road. Many players of their status have done it.
And I am not talking about recent developments. Many of the former star players never became coaches over the past 30+ years
But it seems impossible to imagine Mahomes or Mannings becoming coaches down the road. Wondering why such a difference.
Thanks!
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Star football players make $10-$30 million per year and play many years to become stars. If you have $100 million in the bank, why you want to get out of bed at 4:30am every day and get ready for a long day of teaching 20 year olds when you could be living your best life out spending $100 million?
Because they don’t want to.
Why can’t you just be as gifted as me.
That’s like asking why most waiters can’t cook food.
Some people can do but not teach. If something just comes naturally to you, but you don’t know how to explain it to someone else, you’ll probably be a pretty bad coach.
Others can teach but not do. It’s easy for them to understand what is happening and what should happen and convey that to someone else, but they might not have the physical ability to go execute that themselves. You’ll probably see at least a few career backup QB’s each week now as offensive coordinators or offensive assistants for this very reason.
Concussions and racist billionaires, more or less.
They are loaded and want to enjoy retirement.
Peter Principle. Coaching and playing are two different things. Sure, they overlap, but just because you played doesn’t mean you can coach.
They already got their legacy. They (usually) already got their money. The added stress, crazy hours, and risk to the reputation probably just isn’t worth it when they could take a booth job for similar money.
There are actually a ton of star players that are coaches, they are usually positional coaches
Head coaches are typically very old so they may have been star players at one point I dunno lol
They want to enjoy their lives and families and millions of dollars and not get back to the insane grind of being a coach
The stars are mostly stars because they have incredible genetics and enough brain to learn how to play football. You can’t teach someone to be Randy Moss or JJ Watt.
Some guys are brilliant and innovative and can get by (or even shine) while being less talented physically. Some of these are the types who would make good coaches. These are the vast minority of stars, though.
There are plenty of great minds that just never had the body to make it to the NFL, let alone become a superstar.
coaches are insane people - harbaugh went through his week in 2013 and basically the only free time he had was on friday night lol
if you’re already a multimillionaire from playing football there’s just no reason to subject yourself to that grind unless you really really love coaching
Yep. And even if you love coaching, you love your wife and kids more.
Because playing something doesn’t mean you’re good at coaching it. The vast majority of anyone in the coaching side of things never makes the NFL level, they get to CFB, don’t get drafted and start over.
Coaching in football is very stressful and tiring with the amount of hours they have to put in. It isn’t like coaching basketball where you just come in and collect a check and go home.