Players earn their money!

Professional football players are, not surprisingly, phenomenal athletes. The speed and power displayed on the field is amazing even for a coach who has witnessed these feats for more than 20 years. Because of the length of the season and the violent collisions they must endure not just on game day, but in practice sessions, their durability is incredible.

To perform to the best of their ability they must be in top condition. As Vince Lombardi said “fatigue makes cowards of us all”. Anyone who has played the game or any demanding sport will attest to that. A professional football playbook will easily contain 150 plays or more.

Until a player has been in the same system for at least a year, imagine being required to learn a new language and 150 different assignments in 3 weeks and then get thrown into battle every week to keep your job. Even though concepts in the game are mostly universal through the league, the languages are not. There is a learning curve to translate known concepts into a new language with a short turnaround time for take-off.

Not only are these players challenging themselves physically, but they are being pushed to the limit mentally as well. We have not even considered the emotional aspect of practice tedium and the constant stress of keeping your job.

An analogy of the game day test presented to a player would be to take a test on a subject matter that is demanding. But before being presented with your test question you must run 50 yards as fast as possible. After that sprint, you are given 3 seconds to answer. The test will have between 60 and 90 questions. You average about 18 seconds before each question! Players earn their money!