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!
I think partially because the NFL is so specialized. Most positions are mutually exclusive to one another, and don't really give anyone full coverage of the team dynamic like soccer or basketball would. Even a QB probably can't convert much of their knowledge to the RB position, for example.
Coaching staffs in the NFL are enormous. Head Coach, OC & DC usually take the spotlight, but every team also has dozens of positional or unit coaches (like a defensive line coach) for the reasons above.
Your playing experience doesn't transfer over cleanly to a Head Coach position in the NFL because Head Coaching is closer the executive level of things than I think most people realize. It's more to do with personnel decisions, PR, and being an overseer to a large staff, with some also taking on the direct play-calling and training duties.
Also like everyone else mentioned, coaching is a lot more work for a typically less lucrative job. I would wager Messi or Ronaldo won't be working 80-100 hour weeks when they do eventually coach.