ND OL Steve Elmer forgoes final season

Submitted by Term on
http://www.onefootdown.com/2016/2/16/10972954/steve-elmer-quits-notre-d… Steve Elmer (30 career starts) forgoes final season to pursue other professional opportunities. My question is, will we continue seeing these good college players who are mid to late round nfl draft prospects continue to give up football? Does this tie in with NFL players retiring early due to concerns about how injuries will hamper them later in life?
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DairyQueen

February 16th, 2016 at 2:14 PM ^

things like this have always been happening.

it's just now there's more media to report it and bring it to attention.

How many total news articles do you think people read per week 20 years ago? 50 years ago?

There's simply more coverage. More nonsense as well. But also more great things too.

But there is a diminishing return on what standard format journalism is able to do.

And the internet and it's inherent compulsion to production is exposing that as well.

 

There's also a legend that one football player from Michigan went on to be a US president!

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ghostofhoke

February 16th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

Yes absolutely. I think it's a good trend and it will save a lot of lies. Good luck to this guy, I think his story will serve his future well. Probably not easy to walk away but it speaks volumes.



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Toasted Yosties

February 16th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

It sounds like he received a dream job offer in D.C. and was over football. If you read his letter, it honestly sounds like he never really liked football, but played it knowing he was good enough to land a scholarship. Happy for him. Was bummed we didn't land him here at Michigan back when.

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mgobaran

February 16th, 2016 at 1:44 PM ^

My take. If you love football, you won't give it up. If you are playing football because you are good at it, can use it to get a free education, and you love what you plan on doing outside of football more, then the health risks can play a major factor. There is nothing wrong with either scenario IMO.

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Space Coyote

February 16th, 2016 at 1:54 PM ^

Elmer is a very smart kid that comes from a good background, and from my understanding has always had some asperations outside of football.

I believe he really likes football, but I think there is also a trade off that you have to do: how much work do I need to put in to have perhaps even a marginal NFL career vs getting started on what is my dream job? In this case, I think he sees it as ND gave him enough to persue what he eventually really wants to do, and he doesn't see another year or five playing football as beneficial for his life.

I have a lot of respect for that, despite the fact that I love football.

It does appear he's working with John Moolenaar, from what I can gather, who is the congressman from Midland, where Elmer is from. Harvard and Hope college degrees... but my guess is he's an MSU fan (ND plays MSU next year; and I know, MSU claims not to have fans that didn't attend).

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Gitback

February 16th, 2016 at 2:08 PM ^

The other thing people need to realize is how "unnatural" it is for some O-line/D-line guys to be as big as they are.  Some of these guys "have the frame" to play at 300 lbs. but their natural weight is more like 250 or even less.  Keeping that weight on and that strength up is really hard work.  It can really take a toll on you.  Add to that the regular wear and tear of the game itself, it's no wonder these guys occasionally reassess their priorities.  You can get sick of not only being that big, but having to MAINTAIN being that big.  

This was happening well before the whole CTE discussion came into play, especially among O-line guys, many of whom are pretty cerebral.  Andecdotally, I saw more than a few O-lineman from the 90's (Marc Milia comes to mind) who had NFL potential but simply played out their college eligibility and went to med school/law school, etc.  8 Months after playing many of them dropped more than 60 lbs. and looked like totally different human beings.  

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Yinka Double Dare

February 16th, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^

I worked with a guy who's son walked on at USC on the O-line. After a year or two he decided he didn't want to play anymore, and within a year he'd dropped like 80 pounds. With the amount of running around/conditioning those guys do in addition to the lifting and other exertion in playing the game, you have to consume a frankly uncomfortable amount of food (for some guys) in order to maintain your muscle and weight.

Hence, guys tend to get either much thinner (because they basically had to force themselves to eat that much) or get very fat (because they keep eating a ton but don't exercise remotely enough) after they quit the gamel.

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Hardware Sushi

February 16th, 2016 at 1:51 PM ^

Baran nailed it. I don't know why everytime somebody quits playing football but could continue that people feel the need to make sweeping generalizations about the future of football.

Sometimes people want to do other stuff than play football. 

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Gitback

February 16th, 2016 at 2:00 PM ^

He was a tough one to lose back in 2013.  He was a near 5 star, in-state kid, but his heart was clearly with Notre Dame during the recruitment process.

Good luck to him.  

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