National Felony League

Ok, I'm going to take a shot at the original question and correlate two seemingly unrelated facts.

1. NFL players are overall the most unschooled of all professional sports.

2. NFL players are wreaking violent havoc in higher percentages than any other sports, and the number of incidences are increasing in both number and severity.

Last February, I did watch the Superbowl. And something REALLY caught my attention. About 2/3 of the starting lineups, during intros, mentioned their alma mater university. Most of the rest mentioned high schools. But, among those 44 intros, at least 5 of them named an ELEMENTARY school as their highest level of education. 30-odd years ago, when I started watching, NOBODY played who hadn't spent 4 or 5 years at a university. ~ 20 years ago, they started drafting exceptional guys in their junior year. ~ 15 years ago they started bringing in exceptional high school grads. Don't know how long they've been drafting elementary school players, but I was shocked when I heard those intros.

Common that MLB players are from high-school grades, but they're also playing a (routinely) non-violent game, and players aren't expending the kind of energy or savagery needed for football. NBA is also headed down this road, but not in the same numbers, I think because the NCAA basketball program is such a good showcase for them compared to 8-11 NCAA football games/year. However, they're definitely taking the NBA far into thug territory the last 20-25 years as well, and drafting younger (kobe/lebron etc). Bird/Johnson era was the last gasp for elegant NBA play; though Chicago's run was poetry in the 90's, the Pistons were thugs by then, and other teams were following til we got to now, where it's a rarity to see true team ball and grace. NHL has rules all its own; not going to try to parse out THAT bunch.

So, you take people with progressively less schooling, less adaptive social skills, less maturity; write off their educational requirements more and more at the university level (with some notable schools insisting on academic qualification to play), get to where you scout and train boys from early adolescence to think the world revolves around them, let them quit school earlier and earlier, their purpose on this earth is to hit and hurt and taunt and WIN, DAMMIT!, and don't ask anything more of them than that they grow physically into hulks who can run, even juicing them with steroids while their adult metabolisms and mental processes are still developing, pay them insane amounts of money, throw hot women at them, and idolize them to younger kids. And then wonder why they've turned into sociopathic violent assholes.

Oops. Got into rant mode there. Sorry, but I think I made my point.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Last February, I did watch the Superbowl. And something REALLY caught my attention. About 2/3 of the starting lineups, during intros, mentioned their alma mater university. Most of the rest mentioned high schools. But, among those 44 intros, at least 5 of them named an ELEMENTARY school as their highest level of education.

Not to get nitpicky, but only a few guys in the NFL didn't attend college. And even then, a player must be out of high school for at least 3 years in order to be eligible for the draft. Also, I can't think of a single player whose highest level of education is elementary school (although some of them could fool you on that one if you ever heard them speak...lol).

I do agree though that these guys are a bunch of jackasses.

We were watching the intros and were so taken by it we started counting, so unless they were naming some school other than their last one before they joined the NFL, about 30 were college, about 9 said a high school, and at least 5 said "xxxx elementary". Maybe it was an inside joke. But it WAS the Superbowl, so I'm guessing not.

Most of the elementary guys were offensive linemen, as I recall. All FWIW.

Quote: beachbumbabs

We were watching the intros and were so taken by it we started counting, so unless they were naming some school other than their last one before they joined the NFL, about 30 were college, about 9 said a high school, and at least 5 said "xxxx elementary". Maybe it was an inside joke. But it WAS the Superbowl, so I'm guessing not.

Don't know if it was a joke, but no NFL player has only an elementary school education. (There's no rule that states that an announcer must state a player's highest level of education during introductions.)

I guess it's remotely possible that maybe some obscure player (who only attended elementary school) that no one has ever heard of signed a short-term contract with a team before getting cut, but that's highly doubtful.

Quote: Face

I'd just like to take this time to point out that the sport that consists entirely of hyper violent psychopaths with knives on their feet and clubs in their hands and whose sole purpose is to inflict pain and cause injury is the one sport that mostly seems to keep its nose clean on the legal front.

Hockey. Gentlemen only =)

Well, that's mainly because they are Canadians and Europeans. However, hockey players can misbehave too. The player linked below got 5.25 years in prison after parole. Now he is in the Swedish league.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Danton

Only reason I remember this is that he was a member of my team (Blues) at the time. I couldn't even remember his name sadly; I googled "Blues player murder" and he was the number one hit.

And also Dany Heatley was an idiot driving "Atlanta style" causing a crash that killed his teammate, Dan Snyder, while going ~30MPH+ over the limit. Another weird fact via Wiki, he scored the first game-winning shootout goal.

Generally speaking though, yes, NHL players are complete gentlemen vs. NFL players. Hockey players are much more like rugby players.

Quote: Beethoven9th

Don't know if it was a joke, but no NFL player has only an elementary school education. (There's no rule that states that an announcer must state a player's highest level of education during introductions.)

I guess it's remotely possible that maybe some obscure player (who only attended elementary school) that no one has ever heard of signed a short-term contract with a team before getting cut, but that's highly doubtful.

I don't know the answer either, but it wasn't an announcer, it was the players introducing themselves via posed pictures and voiceovers, and it was the starting offense and defense for each team as they took the field for the first time in the game. (First offense then opponent defense: series of downs til possession change: 2nd offense then opponent defense.) So not marginal players who were cut.

However, I wasn't aware of the 3 years post-high-school/minimum age? rule, so it may have just been some kind of "say your favorite school" thing.

Hard to believe I'm the only one on here who saw/heard these player intros.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Hard to believe I'm the only one on here who saw/heard these player intros.

Could it have been related to player"s sponsoring students or something? (superbowl had a Sandyhook shooting/ children choir singing thene)

Quote: beachbumbabs

Hard to believe I'm the only one on here who saw/heard these player intros.

I think you're reading way too much into those intros. I shouldn't have used the word 'announcers', but like I said, there's no rule that says players must state their highest level of education during introductions. They, and the announcers, can say whatever they want.

Virtually every NFL player has attended college. Now whether or not they learned anything... (haha)

Quote: Beethoven9th

So gay people can't be blowhards? (no pun intended)

Gays like Perez Hilton are blowhards. So, according to you, the NFL can discriminate against him, right?

Yes, the NFL can discriminate against Perez Hilton as an individual but not because he is Gay. Heck, I would too! That guy is impossible to listen to.

Quote: s2dbaker

Yes, the NFL can discriminate against Perez Hilton as an individual but not because he is Gay.

I get it now. So if a man believes in conservatism, then discrimination is OK. But if a man wants to sleep with another man, then discrimination is not OK.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Quote: beachbumbabs

However, I wasn't aware of the 3 years post-high-school/minimum age? rule, so it may have just been some kind of "say your favorite school" thing.

Hard to believe I'm the only one on here who saw/heard these player intros.

The 3 year rule is there because there is a lot of muscle development in the male body ages 17-20 and the NFL does not want guys getting hurt. Some player sued after getting booted from college for gambling or something. I don't remember hearing he won so I assume he lost. This was about 2004-5, I remember discussing it at the office. Support for him or the rule broke along racial lines I will let you guess because a logical guess will be correct.

On the college thing, I remember the Steelers taking some DL in the mid-1990s who was then one of 3 players with no college ball experience. By the late 1990s I noticed players saying their high school and one said, "school of hard knocks."

I can see getting to the NFL via development routes they have now that were less available then, eg: NFL Europe and Arena League. But is still probably at most 1-2 players per team.

I attribute the grade-school thing to the network no longer caring to act as professional in producing the shows as before and players who want to act jerkey and kid around.