Cleaning Up the Scrap Heap Some

The NFL has announced that up to 70 players will be able to use the leagues tuition reimbursement program to attend Harvard and Wharton business schools. This is part of the effort to help prepare players for their "life after football".

Most of us tend to think of NFL players as the wealthy elite who are financially set for life, and in fairness, many of them are. However many more are not.

In any given year there are over 2,000 players who appear on NFL regular season rosters. While the 2004 average player salary sat around $1.3 Million, the sad fact is that this value is skewed significantly by a relative handful of superstars. The median for all players (starters and backups) was only $537 thousand. That means that half of the 2000+ NFL players make less that the $537,000 per year, many significantly less.

Given that the average career lasts somewhere around four years serious financial concerns can arise. Former Giants and Jets ('93-'97) RB Kenyon Rasheed exemplified the situation. He noted that "Like most NFL players, I was not given the option to retire as much as I was forced to quit. I had been playing football my entire life, but at the ripe old age of 26, it was time to give it up due to a neck injury."

Rasheed indicated that only a small minority of former players "retire on their own terms, with so much money in the bank that they don't have to work again." However, for most players, the situation is different. "The majority of players--and I fall into this group--don't have that option when they turn in their playbooks. They have to go out and get jobs." he stated.

Former Tennessee Titan Marcus Robertson followed in the same vein when he noted that "I've seen players play one year and get hurt, I've seen first round draft picks go broke, and I've seen players play 10 years, yet, don't have any money,"

So what do you do to survive when the playing days are over? Well, some stay in the league in another capacity, a few go in to broadcasting, but most have to fall back on what they studied in college. Unfortunately, as we all know, graduation rates are not that spectacular (around 30%). That leaves a void to fill, and that is where the league needs to help out.

There is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of now programs that need to be started. Regardless, this new NFL program is certainly another step in the right direction.