After the Game: What jobs do NFL players fill when they retire?

What jobs do NFL players take up once they hang up their cleats? We crunched LinkedIn data to find out.

According to the NFL Players Association the average career length is about 3.3 years. The NFL claims that the average career is about 6 years (for players who make a club’s opening day roster in their rookie season).  So we can’t help but wonder, where do they work after they retire? We took a look at LinkedIn data for over 3,000 former NFL players to figure out what happens after they score the final touchdown.

You may be surprised to learn that most former NFL players don’t head straight into sports-related professions. In fact, 48% prefer to be their own boss or be hands-on with customers, working as entrepreneurs, sales and customer management professionals.

Keep reading to learn more about where your favorite players applied their football know-how – think team building, leadership, strategy and public speaking – to create flourishing careers off the field.

NFL Player Careers Post-Retirement

If you’re not training to be an NFL player, but still want a job in the sports industry (as we know 40% of you do based on a recent survey), we’ve got you covered.

If the NFL is not in the cards, but you are interested in playing American football there is always overseas. Try registering on Europlayers.com.

Europlayers is the largest online database of American football players, teams and coaches.  It is a connector, bringing together and introducing athletes to overseas teams. On the site you can begin researching teams around the world.  Once you create a profile, you become searchable by hundreds of American football clubs around the world.

But now back to the jobs in sports below (and thousands more here) that are available for you to apply to on LinkedIn now. This could be the start of a whole new career.

The results are based on the analysis of more than 3,000 LinkedIn profiles of former NFL players.