Playing professional football - normal or crazy?

[Demon]

I'm really not sure where to post this. If I post it in Costa Del, it'll take on too much of a relaxed nature. And if I post it in Temple of the Ancients, the theme might be closer but the responses will just be encouragement instead of logic.

So something I'd like to do is play professional football. I don't like the idea of a boring job, and even normal exciting jobs sound boring to me.

Now the first step would probably be getting on an unprofessional football team because I think it kind of does help other's awareness of you as a sports player... over nothing at all. However sports are also dangerous and you have to worry about the injuries. The idea of getting injured now is bad because it's not a good time to get injured. However if you're playing professional football, you still get injured, but at least you have a nice-paying career to counteract. It's kind of a Catch-22.

Other than that, what else do I need to know? It seems like part of playing football is staying strong in all areas - mental, physical...

Also, does playing football despite the injuries beat any other job? Remember that the salary vs. amount of work you do at most careers to pursue isn't very good. Should I aim for a realistic job with only satisfactory pay or try to give up everything over a sport?

I'm pretty good at various subjects of debate so you can guess that I've logically thought through much. However to everyone else, I'm still irrational.

Also, if you want to move this, I don't really care. I'm just worn-out.

 

[CassinoChips]

This is probably better served in the Sports section, so I'll shift it over when I'm done posting.

What type of "professional football" are we talking here? Semi-pro leagues? Most of those guys played football at the college level at some point in their life, or at the very minimum played high school ball and were pretty good at it. I don't know your background in the game, but it's not really something that you can just sort of... start doing one day. And unless it's the NFL, don't expect a whole lot in terms of salary. Most semi-pro leagues pay a couple hundred dollars per game, and play around 8-12 games per season. So it's much more of an avocation than a vocation. Arena league pays pretty well, some players get 6 figures, I believe, but the vast majority of those players are among the last few cuts from an NFL team.

Not trying to burst your bubble here, just being realistic. You have to be either extraordinarily gifted athletically, or inordinately lucky to make a living playing a game.

THREAD MOVED

 

[Demon]

I'm talking about the NFL, TTT. So while it generally (entirely) eliminates pay problems over the semi-pro, my idea is even a bit more far-fetched because of it.

However to be honest, I'm not sure you really have to be the next artist at football. What you usually hear about is that great quarterback in "pro" football that can throw 300 yards against a rough defense. Or any player that can pick up the ball and do well. However there are also lesser players in 2nd and 3rd positions to most of the positions.

As for being extraordinarily lucky or extremely gifted, I know what you mean. What I want to play is QB and right now I probably couldn't throw a ball more than tens of yards, would probably have well under 70% accuracy even on a great day (and with no defense playing against me), etc. But the way I see it, it starts with the mind... if I can work on my analytical skills to try to pick defenses apart and go from there... maybe. But I can see how that's still very unlikely... what would likely happen is that at my best, I'd still be among the worst. The only thing I worry about is that getting real hands-on experiences would involve playing against a defense that no person is ready for... catch-22 on top of catch-22.