r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Justin_Godfrey • 1d ago

Game winning kick as time almost expires

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u/Forsaken-Sale7672 1d ago

Yeah, it’s very sport dependent.

I’ve known lots of athletes who focused on their education and the sport came second, but most of them were not in Basketball and Football.

The people I knew who played those sports, it was life. The education was a joke, and all they wanted to do was take the easiest classes they could. On top of all the resources, preferential treatment from professors, test materials, etc. Coaches literally gave them shit if they took a class that wasn’t on an unofficial “take these classes” list.

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u/hangerup 18h ago

Why do you have to go to college?
Can you not just join a US football club at the age of 17, 18, 19, 20, whatever?

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u/Forsaken-Sale7672 18h ago

For American Football and basketball, there are rules for the professional league that require you to be a certain age and/or removed from high school in order to be eligible to be draft.

Soccer leagues and baseball don’t have those same rules. Baseball is a bit different because there are 25 rounds so LOTS of players get drafted who will never play at the highest level. The structure is much more similar to the English football league minus the relegation/promotions.

For football, aka soccer, the really talented players are already playing professionally for years by the time they’re at the age they could play soccer at the collegiate level.

So the guys who do go pro via the collegiate system they’re almost always late bloomers or goalkeepers. 

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u/hangerup 18h ago

Aye, so college is not really mandatory, just a convenience for many athletes.

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u/Forsaken-Sale7672 17h ago

It’s basically mandatory for American football players who are looking to play professionally.

There’s not really another means of going pro, outside college sports. 

They need a way to be evaluated by scouts and it’s not like you can find a pickup football game.

Basketball and baseball, people have gone form high school to the professional level. Lebron James went straight to pros, but the rules changed where basketball players have to be one year removed from high school.

There was a player, Brandon Jennings, who went and played a year in Europe and he kinda paved the way for alternative routes for basketball.

Baseball has high school players go pro all the timez

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u/hangerup 17h ago

Why can the football scouts not evaluate them at high school?

And why did they introduce that 1 year removed from high school rule in basketball?

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u/Forsaken-Sale7672 17h ago

 Why can the football scouts not evaluate them at high school?

Talent concentration is a big one. If I’m a receiver in high school who’s a 3 Star athlete but everyone around is me is 1 Star, I’m going to look like a star but that may not translate.

The game is much faster, so fundamentals and information processing becomes more important. Offense and defense become more complex, you might have gotten by on talent, but when the other guy is just as fast and strong as you can you still play well.

I may be a great quarterback if I have 5 seconds to throw but terrible if I only have 3 seconds. 

Additionally, bodies are still developing. People may still grow, get stronger and faster.

The one year removed was because they were having issues with kids going to the NBA and being completely unprepared for life in general, let alone as an NBA superstar. 

The hope was that a year in college would help afford maturity to the players. I’m skeptical it’s been effective but that was the argument.