The 1990 N.F.L. Draft Class: Some Thrive, but Just as Many Struggle

A wonderful, wonderful, moving piece. Thank you.

Twenty-four out of twenty-five 1st-round draft picks of the 1990 NFL Draft were black.

Twenty-nine out of thirty-two 1st-round draft picks of the 2015 NFL Draft were black.

This is great article.. fantastic

It would be very interesting to compare the people in the 1990 football draft with hockey, basketball and the 1990 MLB rookie class.

Many of the stories are compelling and it saddens me deeply that so many of these men lost their identities to football and then lost themselves completely when football discarded them. I've watched the game change from a fall sport played by men who had real jobs and real lives to a major industry that consumes men and their lives and spits them out.

Two questions: One: Who forced any of them to play football? No one. The results are all the consequence of the decision to make football their life, just as there are consequences to choosing any other profession or just a job.

Two: What's the qualitative difference in losing your identity when your "football life" is over and being forcefully retired from any other profession? None that I can see except that the sports folks get more sympathy.

Life is not fair and the road we choose to walk takes to somewhere, though it's not the same destination or stops along the way. You made the choice, deal with the consequences.

It may well be that in the future, there will be nursing homes populated by large-framed, multi- tattooed, mindless, crippled-up gentlemen who, hopefully, will be smiling rather than scowling. The cost to care for these damaged athletes will be considerable, and the NFL is only picking up the tab for a few of them right now.

I view football as physical chess, but more complex than the board game. Imagine if Bobby Fisher or Gary Kasparov had to worry about the quality of their pieces as well as the strategy. If they had to consider such things as should I put in a blocking or receiving bishop? Has my rook's shoulder healed enough to hang onto the ball? My rookie queen is good but will his inexperience cost me the match?

This is why football is the greatest sport in the world and why I love it so much.

However, it is really difficult for me to square my love of the game with the pain of the former players. Seeing the former rook that it is in constant pain from all the knee and back surgeries. The bishop whose work choices are limited because he can't walk anymore. The queen with dementia. And the pawns...so many pawns.

The League needs to be preparing these players for life after football from the moment they enter. The players need to understand their earning years are short. They need to be mentored by retired players, taught the basics of financial planning and have some sort of re-entry plan in place from the first year. This article alludes to some new changes for League retirees, so I would assume some of these things currently exist. The reality is that between head injuries and domestic violence, the NFL always needs to be doing better.

Terrific article, but what you can see is they are just people like you and me. Some are thrifty, some are profligate. Some have strong core beliefs and principles; others cut corners or succumb to vices. They are all gifted athletes that had the good fortune to rise to the top of their profession, but think of all the others behind them in the draft, the college players that were passed over or those whose careers were ended early by injury. The NFL and football are a tough way to make a living.

Has America become like Roman Empire? Spending our free time watching gladiators entertain us with no regard for the gladiators welfare?

As a physician I have two comments:
1. As far as I can see, the only mention of drug use is one who mentions becoming addicted to painkillers and then crack. I didn't notice one who mentioned the use of PEDS. I believe they played before the NFL began testing for drugs so there was no hinderance to them using these. Perhaps all of these men were boy scouts who didn't use any PEDs but I doubt it. As many of these drugs can have significant long-term negative effects on the brain and the rest of the body, I wonder why no mention of them is made.
2. In The Times' articles on the suicides of former players such as Junior Seau, the cause has always been considered to be CTE. However, most of these players have many other risk factors for suicide including chronic pain, financial problems, and loss of self-worth.

Aaron Rodgers (last years league MVP) was not a first round draft pick, not a 10th round draft pick. He sat and waited and waited till the Packers picked him. Since then he has won a Superbowl and two MVP titles (one for MVP of the SB). After the Packers won the SB with Rodgers at the helm I remember him saying
"I'd like to thank the SF 49ers for not drafting me." The moral of this story is first round picks mean NOTHING. Go Pack!

Do a balanced analyses of anyone who earns peak earnings at an early age and you are likely to find similar results. Number and percentage of football and basketball multi-million dollar earners pale in comparison with salespersons in up cycles in bubble commodities and services industrial sectors.

School boards who hire coaches without sane concussion/injuries are just as in breach of their in loco parentis and mission of public and private education as are pump and dump boiler room front runners preying on unsophisticated investors.

What kind of impulse control can a kid have if they attend 15 or 16 years of school and never took an interest in anything about their minds or manage their time apart from playing their pro farm sport.

More angst and emotion is desperately needed for the overdiagnoses and overprescriptions with violent side effects such as suicide and murder, and, the underfunding of Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs.

Just a statistical note: To use average salary is to do a disservice to the players who don't have Hall of Fame careers. Contrast the top earners with the bottom earners; use median, group them by 5's. My guess is those without the big salaries were hard pressed financially, especially without the support they needed, but the inflated numbers are misleading.

Gladiators did not retire. They were dragged out of the arena.

NFL players have to be blind if they can't see what's coming. They've been coddled their entire lives for being good at a game. Then they're thrown under a bus. Welcome to the real world.

I like the story of Alan Page. As a player he spent his free time in the locker room studying for his law degree. He's about to retire from his latest job as Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Oh, and he still wears a badge of courage from his NFL days; a pinky that's bent at a right angle.

One would think from the reports that most of the players drafted would have bottomed out by now. But a review of the article shows that maybe a third of these guys are thriving in retirement, a third are getting by just fine, and a third have ended up in bad situations. Every single one of them achieved greatness in their sport, although for some the greatness was achieved in college and not in the NFL. I am the same age as these guys, few of my contemporaries are rich, or earned millions (although some have), none have ended up in jail, and a couple have died. But we didn't grow up in the poor rural south or inner city as many of the players did. And as for the comment that only 3 made the Hall of Fame, as a Giants fan, Rodney Hampton was a joy to watch for many years and I am happy to see that he is one of the guys who seems happy and thriving, if not rolling in saved earnings.

I knew a baseball player who made a lot of money in the 1990s. He benefited a lot from being the son of a lawyer and the younger brother of an accountant. In contrast, a big problem that athletes from the poorer half of society have is that they don't know that many people who are clever and trustworthy around large amounts of money. So they get ripped off a lot by people they think of as friends.

But the colleges that recruit them typically employee professional money managers to manage their endowments. Perhaps colleges should be encouraged to compete for star high school athletes by offering players who go on to the NFL reliable money management by their endowment offices' audited accountants?

Reading the perspectives from this NFL class on the eve of the draft certainly shows the range of success and failures with money and perhaps life purpose. If we read about the more successful stories, a number of players would say they learned something about priorities or life outside of football earlier in life. One player mentioned they fulfilled a promise to their mother to return to school.
But what about the ones who had a more difficult ending? There is little mention of how they were raised. Some of these players probably come from very broken families, where they did not receive guidance with managing money or relationships. They probably saw the NFL as a place where they have a sense of acceptance amongst team members and the fans. But they can also experience a harsh rejection from teams and fans with an injury. They also are likely under immense pressure to succeed at such a young age, only to realize their body can only take so much. Perhaps more than anything, the NFL may be a reflection of our society's issues and misguided priorities. If anything, maybe the NFL should undertake a greater responsibility to take care of their alumni after their playing days are over.

Athletes ending up broke is a cultural problem. It's not the leagues problem. The whole idea of athletes being "ballers" wasting money on cars, women, jewelry, houses, etc. Poor business decisions as well. If athletes can't grow up and forget about that lifestyle than they are the ones to blame.

Atheletes aging is a hard thing for them to cope with. So many players refuse to walk away when their bodies have had enough. Trying to earn that one last pay check, contract, or bonus. For many of them, being in your 30's and washed up and not wanted is a scary thing.

A time will come when football will be seen as a crude gladiator sport. But it will take a long time for that to happen and in the mean time I'll root for the Bears.

That thing called the NFL has so much money. I include the current players in this. Why there is not a decent, livable pension for retired players is beyond me. Why do they have to sue for essential job related injuries ? This is a union issue and the NFL player's union is a joke. Time to consider boycotting this greedy industry of pain.

They are modern day gladiators. When beaten down or too old to fight they are forgotten. The crown roars only for the new crop of warriors.
The NFL only cares about the continuation of the money games.
Old broken gladiators are insignificant.
They feign concern only to protect their obscene profits.
We read this and feel bad for a moment but will all tune into on Sunday and all will bow down to the glorious spectacle...
"SUPER BOWL"

Fascinating article. Thank you for this. But can someone tell me why there were only 25 first round draft picks in 1990. Weren't there more teams than that back then?

A good reminder. For all the youths who dream (and whose fathers dream) of future glory, we can notice that not only do you need to be a star in HS and make a D-1 quality team, and star on that team, and not get hurt, and be selected in an early round by an NFL team (which is where the pot of gold of your dreams was, supposedly), but after your probably very short career, you have to be among the half that aren't massacred once the sport tosses you.

People encourage their children to strive for this why?

I used to know a professional bodybuilder who made a lot of money for his promoters. He was encouraged to go with the flow and let them handle everything. And when he was a little older and they didn't want him anymore, he was out -- and left to make his own way. He struggled awhile with many of the same problems these NFL players report.

When you say, why didn't these guys plan, you might ask, how much guidance is a young man right out of college going to get in these matters and who is he going to ge it from. He might look to his team, his management as his people -- but they'll only tell him what they need to control him and use him. His future is not their problem.

I'm glad the players association stepped up, or it would still be this way.

And I thought the Times only ran its Neediest Cases columns around the holidays.
Put me down for 25 copies of "Reality Check: How to Not to confuse it with a Bank Check.

Fantastic piece, the "Where Are They Now?" was tremendous.

Amazing piece following 1990's top NFL draft picks

I read this from start to finish, in one sitting, while sitting at my desk at work. I don't even like football. But this article was absolutely fascinating to behold. Bravo to the authors. Have to admit that my sympathy for pro-athletes is more genuine than it was before.

There are no guarantees in life no matter what path you choose. Is there a job I do not know of that can prevent bankruptcy, illness or death? Most of the comments here make it sound like these guys would have avoided all the bad cards that were handed to them if they had avoided playing football.

Did they ever hear of assumption of risk? They signed their lives away for millions. If they squandered it or committed crimes, that's their lookout.

I know this comment won't be popular. I'm all for physical fitness but America's fascination with violent *spectator sports* like football, hockey and wrestling is a tremendous waste of time. It's big business masquerading as some ridiculous kind of cultural event and it's mirrored in this country's warlike and bullying relationship to other countries.

Our schools encourage this way of thinking through their elevation of 'sports' to the level of academic subjects, sometimes even excusing star athletes from academic requirements. Physical fitness should be emphasized, not a system which rewards the strongest, heaviest or tallest students because they excel in playing games.

No surprises here, it has all happened before and is happening right now with others. There is always a proportion of any population that does not operate with deferred gratification, does not plan beyond the next "adventure" and does not save for the rainy day. Everyone has transitions in life, plenty of divorce, adultery, getting fat, losing the status of the big job and etc. to go around.

Great story, thanks. I played football in high school and the players that were really good couldn't wait for an opportunity to play in the NFL. Sure its a physically punishing sport, but everybody that hopes to achieve the goal of playing at the professional level knows it. I am a huge NFL fan and appreciate the players going out and hitting hard in order to be competitive. Some end up with longer term physical problems, but they know the risk coming into the sport. That is a price they must be willing to pay to participate at the professional level. I hear talk that NFL and pro football are shameful organizations, but I disagree. Long live NFL football!

Why can't colleges, or maybe the NCAA, be required to offer their athletes degree completion after their play8ing days are over? Seems only fair.

I ran into the NFL quarterback Byron Leftwich recently at the local YMCA. He was shooting hoops with his young son. I asked if he had any plans to return to the NFL. "I'm done!" Leftwich replied. He has apparently handled his money well, survived long in the NFL enough to earn a league pension, built a home for his parents and is concentrating on raising his son. Good for him.

There are a lot of easier ways to make a million dollars than playing in the NFL. And even if you don't wind-up making a million bucks, who cares as long as all of your brain cells stay intact.

Fascinating examination of the class. Difficult to believe it was twenty-five years ago. The '90 class would have been remembered for Emmitt Smith's fall to #17 and later rise to the Hall of Fame, but the suicide of Junior Seau and subsequent CTE revelations will cast a long shadow over this draft. This weekend's draftees would do well to read this article and even to contact some of the former players if possible. There are good lessons here.

For all those obsessed with the NFL draft starting tomorrow. Consider that three out of the first round had Hall of Fame Careers. A few of the rest became decent players below all star level and most ended up out of football in around four or five years.

Success is a crapshoot and most players lose. The analysts that make bold predictions of success for the sure first rounders will be mostly wrong. And for the rest of the players, below the first round, most will end up broken and broke.

It's hard to feel terribly sorry for these players, other than for the head trauma damage, which no one knew about at the time they were playing. Fifteen million dollars for an average of 8.8 years. That's a LOT of money! My late husband was a teacher for 35 years and never came close to earning $1 million in all those years, but did not leave me in bankruptcy when he died.

One of the biggest problems for these players is that while in college, they were given "special" easy classes to take and many never even graduated. Yes, college football led them to tremendous opportunities in the NFL but no one prepared them for life, their families in particular. Many of these men are bankrupt as every relative for 3 generations came with their hand out and the players bought them houses and cars, not stopping to think that professional football has a quick expiration date.

It's a shame that these men (I'm sure much of the same could be written about NBA players, minus the head trauma) are so unprepared for life, both financially and professionally. Is it really a universities responsibility to do this? Of should the NFL require them to take courses in personal finance and help them by designating a major portion of this enormous wealth into something that would provide them income after sports, as well as helping them figure out what to do professionally as well?

Riveting and fascinating piece -- should be a book.

The dirty secrets of professional football: phony educational preparation for many, in particular those who are babied at over-protective schools, and false protections for their bodies and minds during careers and afterwards. Football is a national shame as well as a national game. Entertainment should never involve such dangerous and violent conduct. To keep it from ruining universities even more than it has, no college should support anything other than intramural games. "Corruption never has been compulsory": Robinson Jeffors.

Miserable, brutal sport ...