The “Under 30 League”

When it comes to football, the Nation Football League (NFL) has everyone constantly talking. Fans are always asking “Whose your team? Favorite player?” As the generations go on and new talent is constantly appearing from colleges and teams all over the nation from young men ready to take on the game professionally. But, is it worth it for players over the age of 28 to attempt to start a career out of the NFL?

According to Michael Salfino’s article on NFL players who are hitting that 30 age mark, the number of players that are 30 years of age or older do not have a high chance of starting. The most 30 year old starters a single team has is 8. It is not that the teams discriminate players 30 or older but it is shown that for most positions, players begin the drop in their performance levels. I would agree that after playing professionally for multiple years and putting your body through such a strenuous activity like football will eventually start taking a toll on what you can do and how well you perform. Salfino also mentions Jon Gruden, head coach of the Oakland Raiders, believed that these “aged” men are still so valuable by filling most of his starting line up with them.

Although Salfino has a lot of data to support his argument that the NFL is no longer a place for men 30 years or older, I feel like he lacks some data that could really enhance his argument. Salfino shows data about what teams have starting players 30 years or older, but what about the rest of the team? How much players of this age group are on the team opposed to how much start? I think with knowing the overall head count of this age group compared to younger  players can give a much better view of how outcasted these older men actually are.

The article does mention some key players that are over the age of 30 that are still playing and still very important to their teams. This does give Salfino some credibility in the sense that he is not totally biased towards them. Why give up experienced players who knows how the game should be played for a younger newbie who has never played a professional game? I believe that Salfino sufficiently concluded that players’, in the NFL over the age of 30, performances start to decline compared to the players that are just starting their career. I would say that according to this article, it would probably not be a very long career for players just starting at age 28 unless their bodies still perform like they are in their early 20’s or if they are one of those many exceptions to the “over 30” rule.