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!

  • CountJohn12@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Being an NFL head coach is massively stressful, if you’re set up for life from playing there’s no reason to do that to get paid less than what you did for playing. Most coaches are like former backup QB’s for that reason, they didn’t make enough to be set and have to actually work for a living and being a coach is their best career path since their only work experience is playing football.

    Not a soccer expert but I think you’re underestimating how tactically complex football is in comparison and how hard it would be to just jump straight into being a head coach with no coaching experience. I would never in a million years offer an NFL HC job to someone with no coaching experience no matter how great of a player he was. You have to understand EVERYTHING to be a HC, not just your own position. I’d offer a great QB like Peyton a QB coach job on the spot but there’s no reason for him to get paid peanuts for doing that when he can just sit on the stack of money he already got paid and get paid millions more to do a glorified live stream for ESPN.