Is There Life After Football? (28 page)

Coaching does pay well at the elite levels. Head coaches in the NFL and NCAA can make millions. Even assistant coaches make six-figure salaries, with some coordinators topping $1 million.
²⁴
But compared to what players make, that's peanuts. Most NFL assistant coaches earn far less than the players they coach, even their rookies. For ex-players, coaching is a big step down the salary ladder. If a former player takes an NFL coaching position, he could be the lowest paid guy in the locker room.

The descent is even more precipitous at other levels of coaching. It's not uncommon to hear players and retirees say they'd like to work with kids, keep their hand in the game, coach high school. Their visions, of course, are often romanticized. High school coaching requires more than showing up at the end of summer and throwing the ball around with a bunch of eager teenagers. It's not as demanding as the NFL, but it's hard work. Most high school football head coaches have teaching or administrative responsibilities, which stretch their days from dawn to well past dusk. And their compensation pales in relation to what NFL and college coaches make.

Generally, high school coaches receive stipends for their coaching, over and above their teaching salaries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011), high school teachers average around $55,000 annually. Special coaching contracts or coaching stipends can raise a football coach's income substantially, but exceeding $100,000 is rare. In Texas, the hotbed of prep football, coaches on average make around $30,000 more than their non-coaching teaching counterparts. The head coaches at two of the nations most storied high school programs Odessa Permian and Odessa High each make around $100,000, plus several thousand dollars worth of extra perks. After winning ten consecutive
district titles and three state championships, the head coach at Euless Trinity High School was awarded a contract in excess of $114,000. In 2012, the ten highest-paid head coaches in South Carolina averaged around $100,000. Salaries for top flight head coaches in other football strongholds are comparable. At the same time, coaching stipends for head coaches can be as little as $4,000, with assistants making $3,000 or less.
²⁵

When former players do get into NFL coaching, it's usually at the bottom rung, and most NFL coaches are not former professional players. In 2013, only eight of the league's 32 teams had head coaches with NFL playing experience
²⁶
and only 26 percent of all NFL coaches have played in the league.
²⁷
Nevertheless, the NFL and individual teams sponsor coaching workshops, internships, and boot camps, as well as minority coaching fellowships, that give former players the opportunity to experience the game from a coaching standpoint, but these are not salaried positions and don't guarantee coaching jobs. While many players try their hand at high school coaching as volunteer assistants, they discover that it's no way to make a living. The NFL alumni landscape is littered with former players who have given it a try and quickly gotten out.
²⁸
On the other hand, many players who don't really need the money have gotten heavily involved as volunteer assistants in high schools, and have found the experience fulfilling—a good way to stay close to the game without the commitments of full-time coaching.

If coaching is the most logical extension of playing, then becoming a media sports commentator is a close second. Take it from Mark Schlereth, former NFL lineman and current ESPN broadcaster: “My father told me, ‘Do something you like to do and you'll never have to get up in the morning and go to work.' That's what I did. I got to live out my childhood dream, played 12 years in the NFL and I've been talking about it ever since.
²⁹
Radio, TV, internet outlets, and programming of all sorts make it possible to make an impression, if not a living, commenting
on sports. The demand for commentators, pundits, and critics seems insatiable. NFL player credentials lend authenticity as well as expertise to a media presence.

By and large, players and former players view jobs in the media as viable and attractive ways of making money, if not a living, after football. They've been on camera and the other side of the microphone throughout their careers. With the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, they're becoming skilled in textual communication—in 140 characters or less. Hakeem Chapman was ahead of the media game as far back as the 1960s, when he began taking acting classes in anticipation of moving behind a microphone or in front of a camera. Today, players routinely appear on TV and radio year-round, and post blogs and maintain web sites devoted to football and related issues. They've already got a foot in the door.

The demands of actually
working
full time in the media, however, often surprise former players. As in football, excellence requires preparation and practice, and media work involves many of the aspects of coaching that turn players off. Some former players would like media jobs, but only want to work a few hours a week—mainly on the air. Former linebacker Derrick Brooks, who worked as an ESPN analyst before becoming president of the Arena Football League's Tampa Bay Storm, decries this attitude: “When guys tell me they want to be on television, I'll ask if they're willing to broadcast a high school game for nothing to gain experience. And their response is, ‘No. I'm such-and-such.' I tell them, ‘Well, you're nobody in this game.' You need to put as much effort into this as you put into being a player.”
³⁰

Players are sometimes caught off guard by the pay scale. Celebrity broadcasters with national network jobs make good money, maybe millions, and that's presumed to be the norm. But apart from the relatively small handful of jobs with major networks and in large local media markets (e.g., New York, Chicago, Dallas, and L.A.), TV and radio jobs aren't necessarily lucrative, especially if one only works a few hours a week. A big-market sports talk radio host might make close to a million annually
if ratings are good, but the norm falls well below six figures. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for radio “announcers” and “talk show hosts” was around $27,000 in 2010, ranging from as little as $17,000 up to nearly six figures for the top ten percent. Television pays a bit better than radio. Former pro stars can expect to make more initially than “sports geeks” who are starting out in the business, but some “on-air personalities” make as little as $20 an hour on a part-time basis.
³¹

To establish a serious media career, former players need to learn the ropes. There are a wide variety of roles to learn: play-by-play announcer, color analyst, pundit, talk show host, comic sidekick, and others. Each demands its own skill set. Some players believe that doing a talk show simply involves showing up and talking, but according to professionals in the industry, that's far from the case.
³²
One needs to learn the “off-air” technical workings of broadcasting as well as develop the requisite on-air talents. Analytic acuity, expert knowledge, a quick wit, an engaging sense of humor, and the ability to engage or infuriate others are important assets to cultivate. For radio work, a voice must be clear and distinctive, while TV makes its own visual demands. And being well organized and committed to planning are crucial in broadcasting. This sounds a lot like coaching, if not playing, football.

Many players get their first taste of professional media exposure by appearing on weekly local TV or radio shows centered around their teams, while others pick up a few hundred dollars by calling in to radio stations once a week during the season for brief conversations. The professional possibilities are tantalizing, but deceptive. Transforming brief engagements into media careers is challenging. Recently, the NFL has been helping players make that leap, offering formal training in media work, including “boot camps” in “Broadcasting” and “Sports Journalism and Communications.”
³³

Beyond the money, and perhaps most importantly, jobs in the sports media supply many components of life in the bubble that players treasure. First, there's public attention, if not adulation. Second, there's excitement of performing before a crowd. It may not be the adrenaline rush
of running out of the tunnel at the Super Bowl, but there is something exhilarating about going on the air for a vast audience. Former Green Bay Packer LeRoy Butler provides a glimpse of what motivated his budding media career: “When the crowd noise stops, you got to turn it back on . . . and that is why I like being on [the radio] everyday. . . . Score a touchdown, do a Lambeau Leap. . . . This [being on radio and TV] is Lambeau Field to me.”
³⁴

Third, sports broadcast settings often involve the sort of camaraderie that players experienced in the NFL. The importance of this can't be overstated. Former players miss their teammates. They miss the locker room. They miss the teamwork and striving for a common goal. Some media jobs provide all of these. According to longtime broadcaster Rich Eisen, working for the NFL Network is as close to recreating NFL camaraderie as one can get. It's a “frat boy” version of an NFL locker room, with all the hijinks, bawdy humor, misogyny, and comradeship that can be packed into a workplace.
³⁵
Taken together, these aspects of media work make it especially inviting to former players if they're willing to pay the price.

Many former players would like to be paid simply for being popular icons or celebrities. Lending out their name or their presence can be both lucrative and ego boosting. Product endorsement, for example, cashes in on gridiron fame without requiring extensive new or specialized skills. Few players, however, have the cachet or star power to garner lucrative nationwide endorsements. Once you get past the elite quarterbacks, few players hit the motherlode. The Manning brothers, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees have multimillion-dollar advertising deals, but even other stars have trouble attracting six-figure endorsement money. For most, it's far less and the well runs dry rather quickly. Only the occasional icon—such as Joe Montana—or other players who have maintained high entertainment-media profiles—such as Terry Bradshaw—continue to cash in on their names and personas years after they've left the game.
³⁶
Occasionally, former players like Jim Brown and
Carl Weathers parlay their NFL notoriety into substantial Hollywood careers. Many others dabble at the periphery of the film industry before fading away. As with most professions, becoming a serious actor requires talent, commitment, training, and work.

Numerous former players, however, are able to trade on their NFL celebrity on a smaller scale. Autograph signings, often combined with memorabilia sales, are ubiquitous. Depending upon the locale and market, they can be quite lucrative, even for players with minimal name recognition. The venues run the gamut from convention halls to sports bars and strip mall openings. Fees run from a few dollars per signature charged directly to autograph seekers to several thousand dollars for extended sessions with autograph and memorabilia dealers, who pay for hundreds of signatures at a time. Internet booking agencies hook up players with events, offering either a set fee or a percentage of the revenue generated.
³⁷

Some former players remain in demand as entertainment “personalities” or motivational speakers. Even 40 years after his final game, Hakeem Chapman still capitalizes on his modest fame:

[After I retired] I did films and a lot of stuff. I was on the first
Mod Squad
series. I wasn't one of the lead principals, but I was on the show every week. I did a lot of acting, and I started [motivational speaking]. I took those acting qualities and put them in front of the audience. Now, when I talk, I entertain the people, and I keep them awake. I have about three gigs a month. . . . I'm at a church tailgate party, and I am at a casino and they pay very handsomely. You make yourself $4,500 or $5,000.
³⁸

We need to keep this success in perspective. Chapman is an extraordinary character, with keen foresight and adaptability. He planned and prepared to make the most of his celebrity, and it's paid off. A journeyman, he played on several championship teams, but was never a star. But he recognized the opportunities that came with an NFL career and industriously and intelligently pursued them. Recall that he laid the groundwork
for jobs in business, real estate, and stock sales. He anticipated a possible entertainment career and trained for it, too. As he observes about his current success as a celebrity, “So, how did I do this? I prepared for it. I knew how I would be on stage. I can address people. I can talk. Studying acting, I can relate to the people and give the people what they want to hear and see.”
³⁹
Many former NFL players like to be paid for who they
were
, not what they do now. Chapman maximized both through planning, preparation, and the willingness to provide something people would pay for. He realized he had to deliver a viable product, not simply show up at a gig.

Being paid for who one is—or who one
was
—can be easy money, but it's an occupation with limited horizons. The perilous side of selling yourself as a commodity is your value is completely market dependent and you've got only one aging commodity to sell. You're not producing anything, or providing a value-added service. When a player is valuable in name only, he may be employed by a business, but he might not actually be part of the business operation. His place in the hierarchy is peripheral, and he's gaining no professional capital. His name and his past are all he's got. That's fine for selling autographs, but it holds less currency in more substantial professional ventures.