I am european and I live in Europe following both soccer and football.

One thing that is interesting to me is that in Europe there are so many former star players that became coaches. Some of them have been very successful coaches. Others less so. But the point is a lot become coaches. And Head Coaches nonetheless. I can list like 15-20 people without even thinking too hard.

In football, that seems to not be the case. People like Prime and DeMeco Ryans are the exceptions.

It is a two part issue 1) why are former top players not interested in being coaches 2) why are teams not offering top gigs to former players straight up

Let’s look at two current examples. Bills OC job and the Texas A&M job. Both of these jobs are highly desirable and pay well. A&M likely $10 mil +.

Why are people like Larry Fitzgerald, Rivers, Demarcus Ware, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, Mannings, Brady, Revis not interested and not being offered these jobs straight up?

I can easily see Messi or Ronaldo coaching down the road. Many players of their status have done it.

And I am not talking about recent developments. Many of the former star players never became coaches over the past 30+ years

But it seems impossible to imagine Mahomes or Mannings becoming coaches down the road. Wondering why such a difference.

Thanks!

  • TummyDrums@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago
    • The best players have sooooo much fucking money. They just don’t need the money or stress of coaching, probably just happy to retire. You’re more likely to find backups and journeymen become coaches later, because the money is actually still life changing for them.
    • Positions are so specialized, just because you’re good at rushing the passer doesn’t mean you can coach a whole team, or even just the defense. You don’t really have to have knowledge of the whole field. So playing well doesn’t necessarily translate to coaching well.
    • You might be surprised by the number of players that really just don’t care about football all that much. They’re there to be good enough to make a boat load of money, then they check out and never want to be involved in football again.