Last week I read an interesting tweet from a former football player stating how more NCAA coaches should emphasize the success of their former players beyond just those who make it to the NFL. I found this advice to be quite powerful, for if you have ever visited a college football training facility you will immediately see pictures of the ones who “made it” (i.e. the lucky ones who went pro), but I can’t think of a single instance where I have seen pictures of former players who found success off the field. The obvious first guess as to why this is likely has to do with attracting new recruits to the program — the reality is future players will find the football program to be stronger when they see guys in the NFL, rather than former players who are now successful teachers, engineers, and computer programmers. Still, if we want to sell young people on the overall life benefits of playing college sports, and present a far more realistic picture of where former college football players more likely end up, shouldn’t there be some depiction of former players excelling in careers beyond football?
The realities of making it
The number of college football players who make it to the NFL is incredibly low, even for powerhouse programs. Generally speaking, of all the college student athletes playing today, less than 2% will eventually play professional sports. Put another way, 98% will see their careers end the last day they compete as a college student athlete. While most people realize that becoming a pro athlete is difficult, they don’t usually think it’s this much of a long shot.
When new student athletes arrive on campus, they are often made aware of these statistics during their orientation, but the numbers don’t usually resonate at that time. Why? Because in many cases these young men feel if they were good enough to make it to college sports, why wouldn’t they have the same chances to eventually advance their careers to the pros? In fact, often it is precisely because of this mindset that they make it as far as they do, so it’s quite understandable that they think in ways of beating the odds.
Life skills development means more than just “going pro”
Another wrinkle to this story is the irony surrounding how many coaches these days talk about developing their student athletes to succeed in the “real world,” yet very often the teachings of life skills seem to remain only in the realm of how life skills help athletes succeed in their sport. The truth is coaches make more money and earn longer contracts for winning, not setting young people up for future non-sport careers. You won’t see coaches receiving big bonuses for helping student athletes develop resumes or attain internships and jobs, but you will when they lead their teams to championships. That’s not designed to be a criticism of coaches, but instead to point directly to where they are positively reinforced, and therefore where their attention is largely devoted.
The good news is that coaches who make it a point to help their athletes identify and use athletic transferable skills not only witness better overall confidence, they also see an increase in athletic abilities, too. Hopefully more coaches will speak directly to their student athletes about how transferable skills like time management, communication, and multi-tasking really are, both on and off the field.
Final thoughts
While it’s understandable why most college coaches adorn their training facility with pictures of previous star athletes who made it to the professional ranks, when this occurs in the complete absence of the other 98% of successful student athletes who used their athletic career to better themselves off the field then something terrible has gone wrong. Sure, it might not be as attractive for a prospective student athlete to see pictures of former athletes in business suits, but it is a more realistic view of where most former student athletes end up — in jobs off the field, not on the field.
drstankovich.com
