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Career Counseling and Division 1 Football Players

Author: Recent Former D-1 Football Player
December 5, 2005

Introduction

In Division 1 football, everything is taken care of for the athlete from the day they are recruited until the day that they graduate. They are assisted with class registration, decision upon what major to take, changing majors, all medical needs, and any psychological needs during their time as an athlete. Everything is done to make the athlete the best that they can to help him perform at his peak level. But as soon as the athlete is done, 124 of the institutions say goodbye to the athlete and never think of them again. They do not realize, or care, that the athlete needs to understand several things before going out into the real world. Several issues will probably occur, the loss of identity, feeling as if they're a failure if they didn't go to the NFL, are included, as well as nearly every other male empowerment issue. In addition to this, behavior in the workplace should be examined. Things which were commonly acceptable as a football player, things such as sexual harassment, poor personal hygiene, lack of effort, and foul language are not acceptable in the workplace. There is no research that could be found about counseling Division 1 football players; so much of the information discussed will be about minority and male empowerment issues, as well as personal insight from experience with the athletes.

Socialization

Football players are the epitome of Sexual Socialization. They are aggressive, violent, tough, strong and fear nothing. These feelings are not only driven into them during childhood, but everyday from the day they are involved in athletics. The worst things to be called as an athlete are soft, weak, a sissy or a pussy. Anytime that an athlete is called one of these names by a peer, they are expected to fight and prove their manhood.

In football, players are often times referred to as warriors, and soldiers. Football is called a violent game and it takes a special individual to play it at a high level. It takes an intense person to play football. With all of these statements being made, many young people will try to shape themselves into these aggressive and violent behaviors to have what it takes to play football.

The athlete is taught by their coach to show no signs of weakness. They are not allowed to cry, it's seen as un-masculine. Any feelings shown make the athlete a sissy. They are not allowed to bend over when tired; they are not allowed to think they are tired, they are not allowed to do anything that could be seen as weakness. An example of this, is earlier this season, Willis McGahee was not "running hard" and afraid to hit the hole. He was running soft. All of these statements were made by his Head Coach Mike Mularkey (Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills). The following week, Willis McGahee had a season high 143 yards rushing to prove to his coach that he is not soft.

They are constantly trying to prove their dominance. This, in essence, is the nature of the sport. The athletes line up across from one and other, and they go through a physical effort to prove which one is more dominant, and the dominant one wins. This crosses over into their personal life. They always try to prove who is dominant. This leads to an abundance of locker room brawls, fights in clubs, an abrasive behavior in class, and difficulty with room mates who are non-athletes.

Their patterns of socialization lead to males commonly having a lot of acquaintances, but no close friends outside of their team. This attitude often goes into life, where in the corporate world the same thing comes about. However, their team is not there any longer.

Loss of Identity

The athlete, once he is finished playing football, feels that he no longer has an identity. By the time he graduates, most football players have been participating in the sport, and have been known as a "football player" for 10 years. This person has been called "the football player" and often times his name wasn't known, but someone would come up to him and ask, "Do you play football for..." When someone would ask the common question, "What do you do," the answer was never "I'm a student," it was "I'm a football player."

Upon completion of the athletes' last game, he is no longer a football player. Often times, the individual doesn't know what to do with themselves. They have been a football player for more than half of their life up to that point. They don't know what to do with themselves. They can't imagine life as a normal person. This often leads to the person trying to hold on and play semi-pro football, Arena 2 football, and various independent leagues hoping it will lead them to their dream of playing in the NFL. They have played football for so long that they feel that they have to play to be a person. In the real world, it is the same idea as work as the central role in ones life. When this is lost, the identity of the individual is lost. (Cato)

Often times, the athlete feels as if they are reaching an alley with a dead end and they've got no place to go and that their life and identity is finished. This can lead to horrific behavior, including alcoholism and turning to drugs, to escape this feeling and this life. Something important that could be done upon completion of football is to reframe its completion. They need to feel as if they are not at the end of a dead end alley, but going from the building and reaching a door to the outside, filled with opportunities that they are well suited to take on.

By this reframing, the athlete may come to see the change not as an end, but a beginning. They will learn to seek a new identity, not hold on to their old one, or try to escape their new one.

Sexual Harassment

This is often times a hard one for football players to get over. For years, they've just gone up to women indiscriminately and talked to them, touched them, etc. and it was okay since they were a football player. Many times things were allowed to let slide since they were football players, and things would go unreported by the women.

However, a comment on a woman's legs, butt, breasts, etc. in the real world is unacceptable. It is very possible that they could get fired for such comments in the real world. A slap on the butt of a passing by woman now could get them arrested as assault, where it would have been laughed off as when they were an athlete.

These behaviors are unacceptable. Even when they were an athlete, these things were unacceptably accepted. No longer a semi-celebrity, they are no longer above the law. These things must be understood.

First off, they must be made to understand that these things were not acceptable to society during their tenure as a football player, and they are not acceptable to society now. For instance, take the incidents with the Minnesota Vikings of late. For those who do not know, several players were on a yacht and they brought several women on there with them (thought to be strippers or prostitutes). During their time on the boat, money was handed out to the women, and illicit acts were performed. They started out as lap dances and quickly turned into sexual acts. The staff of the boat turned the boat around and turned the athletes into the authorities. This should have never happened. They felt that they were above the law because everything was allowed to slide.

Transitions and Current Athletes

As previously mentioned, after much searching on the internet, no information was found about counseling Division 1 football players. With this in mind, no one knows if the athlete themselves are ready to go out into the real world, or if they are just going to hold on. Also, what issues the athlete has that they are dealing with before assimilation is unknown.

Nearly every school has an exit exam for athletes. At this point, a survey such as Mary Heppner's' Transitions Questionnaire could be used. With the use of this instrument, the counselor has a better idea of how to help the athlete. The counselor will know where to begin with their questioning. The counselor will have a better idea if its confidence, support, knowledge, etc. which is holding the athlete back. (Gysbers)

This lack of information can affect the athlete adversely. This lack of information for the counselor, and in 124 of 125 of the institutions with Division 1 football, lack of counselor can lead the athlete to feelings of helplessness as they go into the real world. The athlete has had everything done for them since day one. Now many of them are unprepared to go into the real world. This leaves many athletes with feelings of helplessness, depression, etc.

Counseling could help athletes with these feelings, and prevent these feelings with athletes before they even happen.

It would be an interesting study for a few institutions to begin performing Transition questionnaires and looking for trends. Are there general needs that need to be addressed for the athletes across the nation? What can be done to address these needs? It seems as if much information may be delivered by a quick and easy instrument. This could help institutions that don't have the money to start up a full counseling program.

Counseling and Future Athletes

Today, there are so many athletes who feel as if their major is "bull shit" and they don't want to go to class or succeed because it is nothing they are interested in. This leads to unattended classes, un-finished homework, projects in-completed, and tests unprepared for since the athlete has no interest in the material. A major part of the reason for this occurrence is that so many athletes come in unaware of their interests and no idea of what careers that there are out in the "real world."

I feel that there is something that can be done quickly and easily which would prevent much of this from happening. Before entering classes or deciding a major, athletes could undertake an exercise to find their Holland code. This could help them find their major which they feel fulfilling and interesting. This could help eliminate some of the problems currently held with athletes and their classes.

This could set up the athlete for a more positive outlook when they are done with their collegiate football career. The constant development of the total individual, not just the total athlete. This could help the reframing of the athletes mindset from the completion of athletics as a finish line to the starting line.

Conclusion

With 125 Division 1 football institutions and only one of them providing any sort of career counseling (University of Missouri), it seems to be that the athletes are well taken care of during their career and cut off as soon as they are finished playing football.

Measures can be taken, now for current athletes upon their completion and for incoming athletes that can help them with their career decisions. Measures can be taken to help assimilate athletes into the corporate world as painless as possible.

Much can be done to help the athletes and their future careers. Not much is being done now.

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