This is crazy so many people dying relatively young all of a sudden- I was like why is this thread at the top? Then I had a bad gut feeling this could be the situation and sure enough
Anyone heard a possible cause of death? My favorite Jacoby quote was when he caught the TD in the playoff game as a member of the Ravens. He said "you could hear a mouse pissing on cotton" after his catch. RIP J.
The extremely sad thing is the average life expectancy for an NFL player is mid 50’s. https://americansportsplanet.com/average-lifespan-of-an-nfl-player/ Anytime folks get pumped with adrenaline after watching a viscous level tackling hit; both players may have just shaved a couple of hours off the tail end of their lives. It’s like watching people die slowly in fast mode. NFL players are the least rewarded among the top 4 sports in the US. Though they play in the most popular league of any sport in the US. Their league makes absolutely the most money. And the players get monetarily rewarded the least of the major sports. Their contracts are generally only partially guaranteed. And the lowlight of it all, they get to live many less years than their counterparts in other sports. Jacoby dying at 40 is very very young…
Enlarged hearts among football players is a common issue alongside CTE. Jacoby apparently had a heart attack at 40. Appears to have been battling high blood pressure as well which is another common malady that impacts former football players. These guys are involved in what amounts to multiple car accidents every single game. Im a huge proponent of the new rules trying to limit the carnage like the new kickoff rule. Its legitimately a gladiator sport. https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press...malities-decades-after-retiring-from-football
I get the concern and certainly the players union in the NFL is weaker than the other sports with the difference in guaranteed contracts, etc. But when you say least rewarded, are you just saying the average salary? Because there's twice as many players in the NFL as there are on MLB teams, and like 3-4 times as many as on NBA teams, so the average salary is likely to be way less. Or did you mean what the players make as a percentage of the overall revenue of the league, which might be a better measure? I haven't seen any of those numbers, but it wouldn't surprise me if the NFL players get less percentage of league revenue than in MLB or NBA.
I think "least rewarded" means average individual players earn less per season, have careers shortened by injuries far more often and, by far, suffer more long term consequential damage to their bodies. This is why I used the term cannon fodder as a comparison.
It's certainly not a gladiator sport like it used to be when the sport was still pure.(70'S THROUGH 90'S) Now you cant hardly tackle a guy and WR's have no fear of going over the middle. Players like Jacoby have shorter lifespans because of diet and alcohol (Jacoby's issue) and drug issues. Also using HGH/Steroids have an effect. Lastly you can blame CTE.
While the sport is not as brutal and oblivious to player safety as it was in the past you wont convince me its not physical enough where guys arent legitimately trying to take each others heads off. And yet the coroners report plainly states that there were no drugs in JJ's system and manner of death ruled natural. I'll prefer to remember him within those results. You arent wrong in pointing out the vices that many pro players are stricken with that contribute to early deaths. These guys push themselves to the limit just to stay in good enough shape to remain in the NFL and even the cleanest of players ends up suffering debilitating pain and other contributing factors to untimely deaths. CTE being the main one in terms of suicide. I didnt know how high the preponderance of diabetes and high blood pressure were until recently as I figured guys who worked out all the time had to be in "good" shape, but the diets or lack thereof just to keep weight are also problematic.
The average NFL player career is about 3.3 years. But that player has been taking punishment onto his body since middle school or high school. Average salary per player is about 3-3.5 million per season. NFL has 53 player roster. It’s not just the 3.3 years that does a player in, but the 10-15 years they were playing prior to the NFL. But make no mistake, the 3.3 years of surgical precision heart pounding NFL tackling is real! The monetary figures are from 2019/2020. NFL players in their 50’s right now played in the NFL in the mid 90’s early 2000’s, when salaries were good but much less than 3.5 million average. in contrast the NBA the career span is about 4.5 years, making between 8-9 million per season on average. The NBA has 15 roster spots. One more thing the NFL has which is a huge disadvantage to its players, but a huge boon to the product is no automatic guaranteed contacts, like in the other US pro leagues. The only positive for an NFL players is that a larger percentage of the population will get to play in The NFL than in either the NBA or MLB combined. But the NFL is a legit meat tenderizer/ er meat grinder. Concussions, debilitating chronic pain, PTSD, addiction to pain coping drugs, etc. all to be managed outside of the limelight they experienced up until they made the NFL. The other part is that the 3-4 year career will be their highest earning income of their lives. After that it’s lucky if they earn 50-100k a year grinding the mundane jobs the rest of working stiffs have. Hence least rewarding based on an individuals experience. Good cash at a time most people aren’t very disciplined with money, lucky to get a decent paying normal job after they are cut by their team, the rest of their lives managing chronic injuries and pain medications, and dying in their 50’s - perhaps never getting to meet a single grandchild. I would say that speaks for itself I terms of least rewarding.
The players know the risks and choose to accept this risk. Nobody is forcing them to play the game. I'm totally against guaranteed contracts in any sport. Look at the Stros with Abreu, LMJ, Montero as reasons why.. Who's fault is it that they're undisciplined when it comes to money? BTW, most players in sports, while they have a shorter lifespan live long enough to get to see their grandchildren. I shed no tears for people who decide to make professional sports their careers. I shed tears for regular people who have to work around asbestos, work in coal mines, deal with the hazardous chemicals on a daily basis for a fraction of the money.
I wonder what the average NBA and NFL salary is each if you skim off the top 10-15%. That would be a better reflection of reality for most guys. For that matter, I'd like to know for the bottom 50% of NBA & NFL players.
The NFL minimum salary is $795k for the 2024 season and for the NBA it's $1.2MM for the 2024-25 season (going up to $1.95MM next season).
