r/American_Football

Yeah

I’ve been playing football from third grade, all the way into my early 20s. Something nobody talks about is life after football, for athletes that come from impoverished areas and deeply traumatic backgrounds, we often based our entire value system and personalities off of football.
After walking on a division one college and making the team then having the NCAA rules rip it out from under me, by introducing “Revenue Sharing”- I went from the best shape and mental space in my life for the absolute worst of both. I didn’t know how to walk into the gym and work out anymore. I didn’t know how to carry myself without leveraging football against everything else in my mind. And I find myself here 22 unfulfilled with no direction. I can’t even watch football anymore. I’ve needed to separate myself completely from the sport to rework my value system in a healthy way, nobody talks about the trauma athletes deal with or what led them there or how they deal going out of the sport it’s always surface level care while they are in the sport, and then no real love after. I’m not saying fans need to support athletes after more so saying schools should have counseling to help bring athletes and help one deal with life after they’re not being an athlete, it may not be that way for everybody, but many athletes have generational curses that they are supposed to be the ones to break family and friends and on drugs, instead of trying to be a normal kid based the entirety of her developmental years, working tirelessly to change their entire family.

I love modern NFL stadiums. I'm not anti-dome at all. But I think we're in danger of engineering something essential out of football.

More teams are moving toward enclosed stadiums for understandable reasons: concerts, year-round events, fan comfort, Super Bowl eligibility and revenue.

But football is also supposed to have unknowns. Wind, rain, cold and snow change strategy and create games we remember for decades.

So I've been kicking around a compromise:

The open air Game.

For future roofed NFL stadiums, if you want Super Bowl eligibility, the roof over the field has to be retractable.

The NFL then designates maybe 3–4 games every season as Elements Games, announced with the schedule in May.

The home team doesn't choose them based on the forecast.

Week 16 - Buffalo at Chicago - OPEN AIR GAME - ROOF OPEN

Maybe it's 45 and sunny. Maybe it's 15 and windy. Maybe it snows six inches.

Nobody knows.

That's the point.

Existing permanent domes get grandfathered, and obviously there are exceptions for legitimately dangerous weather.

I'm not trying to get rid of domes.

I'm trying to keep domes from eventually getting rid of weather.

Build the roof. Host the concerts. Host the Super Bowl.

But a few Sundays every year?

Open the damn thing and play football.

What do you think?

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idk if this is the right reddit, but im a freshmen reciever and safety. And i was wondering if i should get a rip protector or a backplate. The only players on my team that have one of the two, have a rib protector belt, that i think the school provides. 2 of these players i believe exclusivly play wr and db, so im confused if i should do one or the other. or if i even need this stuff in the first place? please and thank you. examples of the type of rib belt and backplate im refering to just in case.

I’m going to be a freshman in high school, I am going to play football to meet new people. There’s only 60 kids per class so everyone makes the team I’ve only really played flag football. I’m also not too fast. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So I’ve got something to get off my chest that’s been bothering me for about a year. My last high school football season was last year in the 25-26 season. Going into the season I was pretty much the only senior going to team lifting sessions before summer as well as going out on my own on weekends to train with paid trainers. We were a pretty small team with around 30 players, and in my head I was pretty much guaranteed to start. I had the most experience, was working harder than anybody else on the team and put on 15lbs while also getting faster. I’m 6’2 195lbs running a 4.48 40 time. I sprained my ankle pretty bad the second month into practice during the summer but didn’t stop going to practice even though I wasn’t allowed to practice. By the time I got back my coaches gave both my offensive and defensive positions away to freshmen who didn’t try a single bit in practice and one of them was a position coach’s son. I was pretty mad but bit my tongue and kept out working them. didn’t get my spot back for some reason and by the time the first game came around I was only given 5 snaps on defense. First play I got a 5 yard sack, 2nd play we forced an incompletion, 3rd play we forced another incompletion then the 4th play a player jumped offsides and a db gave up a deep ball on the fifth play. I didn’t see the field again for some reason despite working as hard as I could at practice out preforming everyone else. Then during week 4, my coaches let 2 seniors that’d quit going into our junior season rejoin the team and start instantly. Saying I was mad would be an understatement. But I kept grinding and was allowed to start week 8 but mainly due to 2 other guys getting injured. I got 9 solo tackles in the first half then got pulled for the rest of the game and was honestly considered quitting. But I stayed for the rest of the season. The team ended up going 2-8 because we ran the same 4 plays on offense all season and had a quarterback that only threw the ball to his friends. Also that coaching staff ended up getting fired back in January.
Sorry to anybody reading this for there not being any real format, I just needed to rant without getting seen as bitter or whining.

Edit: this was the second coaching staff I had in my high school career. And they were horrible to play for compared to my first staff. Nobody was held accountable by coaches in the locker room and the few players that would try to hold other players accountable were clowned on by the idiots on the team that didn’t care about being disciplined and winning games. I felt like we had the roster to easily be a 7-3 team if we would’ve had better coaching.

I’m 31 and still play full contact tackle football, but recovery after every game has been getting harder and harder with pains rolling into the next game sometimes even.

A part of me is telling me to put up the pads.

Worst injury I’ve had was a mild concussion a few years back. Nothing too serious. The main issue is just consistency.

I play in a rec league and some of these dudes are past 40 and playing like their life depends on it.

So I signed up for a recreational soccer league to play w friends and stuff but now i wanna join football, specifically as a lineman. The soccer thing is Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-9:30 and football practice everyday 2-5 and games on Thursday, Thursdays shouldn’t be a problem at first cuz I don’t think I’ll start right away. But do yall think i can manage both?

Serious question. I’m a huge NFL fan, but I got deep into the World Cup and it completely warped my perception of pacing.

I was just watching the Patriots vs Colts preseason and the speed of the game was so off. Between the huddles, the resets, and the constant breaks, it felt so slow.

I know preseason football is always a sloppy slog, but man, the contrast was crazy. Anyone else experience this transition or does your brain just adjust once the regular season speed kicks in?

Today my 11u son was asked about the running lanes for RB. He said 9,7,5,3,1,0,2,4,6,8,….he was told that is incorrect. Its 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 🤔. I mean I haven’t played organized football in about 14 years but when did this change? Is it a formation thing? They run wing T

Hey everyone. I’m doing the public announcing for the game tomorrow for a small high school. I have lots of stage and public speaking experience but no PA / Announcer experience.

I think I have the basics down but any tips or opinions on what should or should not happen from the stadium announcer? Especially those small things lesser thought of.

Would be greatly appreciated.

My team has already had their first preseason game does that mean it is too late to join?

As a college football addict, I have watched every major game that took place on a Saturday for the past 5 years, besides when I had to coach my football team. I have completed my undergraduate degree, and now I’m about to start my masters program as a 24 year old male, I’m excited but also heartbroken. I’m attending the prestigious university in my state, a college football play off team! But my classes are on Saturday in person. 💔 I don’t know what I’m going to do, how will I focus in class when I’m missing Texas losing, when I’m missing bama losing to ole Miss! When I miss all the good games that start, now those late night 6 o’clock games I’ll be there! But my classes on Saturday are form 10-5 😭 that’s a lot of games I’m missing! Boys help me out, how did yall do it go to class and still enjoy football.

Im big into sports but I’m Irish and the NFL isn’t huge here, I want to start watching some games and support a team thats exciting to watch with an outside chance of competing and a team that has a respectable fanbase. Im also a huge Liverpool Fc fan so I’m looking for a team that somewhat replicates their people, fans and history. Im completely new to the sport so any suggestions are appreciated, some teams that caught my eye early on are the Ravens, Steelers, Bills, Eagles and Lions. I also need to stay away from the west coast teams due to the time difference here in Ireland, Central and Eastern time zones would be best.