Athletes strive each and every season to make history or break some sort of record. Year in and year out history is made and records are broken. One record that has yet to be broken, and likely never will be broken is that of Father Time. Athletes do their best to outlast Father Time, but in the end, they eventually fall short.
Age catches up to everyone, but it is spotlighted a lot more by athletes. The physicality their bodies go through eventually catches up with them, and naturally so. Some players enjoy long careers, while others do not get to enjoy that luxury because injuries or their bodies not being able to take the punishment of an entire season.
Recently on Twitter, someone brought up the topic of how NBA and NFL players differ when it comes to longevity in the two respective sports and how certain players are extending their time cards from Father Time. The numbers of the length of players’ careers is closer than what you may think, but there is a clear difference.
In football, every single play has some sort of hitting involved. That is obvious to anyone who is, in any way familiar with the sport. No matter what position, excluding the quarterback, punter and kicker positions, there is a one-on-one battle to gain the advantage. This isn’t saying quarterbacks and kickers don’t get hit, but they are on their feet and hit less than all the other players, unless you are Jay Cutler.
The game of basketball is much easier on the body from a physical perspective. While there are individual battles every play, not every player in involved in that. There are times down the court where a player isn’t even touched in the slightest way.
There are several statistics that show how long, on average, player’s careers last. Running backs, for example, have an average career span on three years. This can change as a lot of running backs play more than three seasons, but the more the back plays, the more beat up his body usually is. Running backs these days hardly make it past the age of 30 in the NFL due to the physicality of the position. Each play they are either blocking or are the ball carrier getting hit. That takes a major toll on one’s body.
Three of the games most elite running backs, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, and Earl Campbell, played a combined 27 seasons in the NFL. Granted they walked away for different reasons, they still took beatings throughout their careers. That is nine seasons per player. The age of 30 is like the age of 40 when it comes to running backs.
The quarterback position has a little more longevity at 4.4 years. This is due to the fact that they are rarely hit, (again, unless you are Jay Cutler, among other quarterbacks). There are a plethora of rules to protect the quarterback these days, which makes their longevity a little bit longer.
In the NBA the careers last anywhere from five to eight years depending on certain criteria and variables. There were 3,668 players in the NBA from 1946 to 2011 and the average career length was 4.8 seasons. That number has since risen to closer to 8 seasons. If a player makes at least one All-Star game, their careers average 11.3 seasons.
The last stat might be why there are so many older, veteran players playing so well this season. Players like Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, and Steve Nash are trying to outrun Father Time, but will eventually run out of room to run. Bryant, who is in his 17th season, which is actually 19 seasons if you add his playoff and international minutes up, is playing at an elite level this season. The man is 34-years-old and still playing at such a high level.
Pierce is helping the Boston Celtics stay afloat in the Eastern Conference without his young point guard, Rajon Rondo, who is out for the season with an ACL tear. Allen is helping the Miami Heat by continually knocking down jumpers from behind the three point line, something he knows a thing or two about. Kidd played tremendously for the New York Knicks in the early going of this season, and is now accepting the role of spot-up shooter. Oh, by the way, Kidd is 40-years-old. Nash, who is 39 and was plagued by a lower leg injury at the start of the season, is slowly finding his groove with the Los Angeles Lakers.
More NBA players these days are taking better care of their bodies than those of their predecessors. The better they treat their bodies, the better their bodies hold up. Bryant has had, and played through numerous injuries in his career recently went over to Germany to have special procedures done, something that looks to be paying off.
It all comes down to the nature of physicality in the two sports. Not saying one sport has better athletes than the other, because that is a whole different subject, but the physicality of the two makes a difference in longevity. Football players who are more prone to a lot of contact are likely to have shorter careers of that of basketball players.
All athletes can do what they want to help their bodies in the long haul, but in the end, Father Time comes out victorious.
Photo Credits: NY Daily News
