(ThyBlackMan.com) The brutality of the NFL is evident every NFL season. No professional sport has the injury risk that NFL players face and the collisions and force that players make with each other both thrills the fans but takes a toll on the players themselves. In recent years, the National Football League has implemented new tactics for player safety including changing the alignment of kickoff returns and giving NFL players the option of wearing “guardian caps” that can add a layer of protection from hits to the head. The general public is more aware than ever that football is a dangerous sport and the NFL has even responded with a greater investment and focus in flag football at multiple levels. While NFL players are generally aware of the physical toll playing their sport will have on their long-term health, there is still studies that show the impact football can possibly have on the lifespan of NFL players.
A recent study at Harvard University displayed how the suicide rates of ex-NFL players was higher than the suicide rates of ex-NBA and ex-MLB players. The study examined death records of retired NFL, Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association players starting in 1979. While suicide rates were similar across all three leagues prior to 2011, from 2011 to 2019 former NFL players died by suicide at a rate 2.6 times higher than their MLB and NBA counterparts. Earlier this year, former NFL wide receiver Rondale Moore died at the young age of 25 years old by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Moore was a former college star at Purdue who was attempting to get back into the NFL after missing the 2024 and 2025 NFL seasons after suffering season-ending injuries in preseason.
Although there are more players on an NFL team roster compared to NBA and MLB, the challenge of NFL with less guaranteed money and the constant player movement of NFL players being released due to injury makes the chances of making an NFL team a tough proposition along with the physical toll of the game of football. The relative lack of financial security of the NFL compared to NBA and MLB can also play out financially for ex-NFL players as displayed in the saddening story of Kevin Johnson.
Kevin Johnson was a fourth-round pick of the New England Patriots in 1993, and he had significant financial difficulty after his NFL career ended. According to his friends, Johnson had various health issues post playing career that led him to become homeless. Earlier this year, Kevin Johnson was found unconscious at a homeless encampment in Los Angeles and he died from “blunt head trauma and stab wounds,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said. He was just 55 years old.
Finish story here; The major challenges facing former NFL players post-career.
