>>68514392
i know it's fun as hell when you're playing in the mud with your friends. i dunno about all those pads though, looks uncomfortable.

>>68514392
What are you talking about? It looks fun as fuck.
I know it's shit for your body if you are a lineman but still.
>Choose tactics for next play
>Concentrate with every inch of your body and spirit to execute the play
>Listen to the sound of the snap
>It's go time
>Rush of adrenaline as your body explodes forward
>Repeat for next play
Or at least that's my idealised image of handegg

>>68514392
>>68514443
Canadian here, played AAA (was shit though)

It's really, really fun. Practices and games are basically the most fun you can have without intoxicants as a 14-18 year old, imo

>love the smell of dewy morning grass because of early saturday practices

>>68514392
No one likes AM football thats why its played in the PM and everyone likes

Football was great fun until I got a scholarship to play it in college. Then it just became my job. Totally robbed all the fun out of the game.

My favorite moments will always be playing at the Optimist Park, eating oranges with your bros and running some outrageous power-I against kids from the next town over.

We even had tiny cheerleaders, it was pretty sweet.

I've played american football and lacrosse at every possible level except NFL and MLL.

>high school football and lax
>college football and lax
>semi pro football and semi-pro box
>also mens league football and mens league flag

Football became more and more miserable at each level. In high school it was fun as fuck. Represent your school, play with friends, school rivals, high school playoffs/championships etc.

In college, as this poster said, >>68517619 playing became a job and robbed the joy of it. Required gym time, required film study, coaches and advisors scheduled all of my classes, meals, trainers down your back if you're not eating whats required, coaches stealing your care packages/other food you sneak in, 6-8 hour coach bus rides/flights into hotels, every meal with 55 fucking other guys plus coaching staff, 4-5 guys to a hotel room, having no social life thursday nights and friday nights because of curfew, having to pretend to care about alumni/important people, it was such a chore.

Semi pro football you have to pander to the owners and coaching staff and play the politics. I've been cut, traded, signed multi year contracts only to not make it through camp because some NFL camp body wash out gets signed at your position, the instability of it all is corny af.

Actually playing though was fun though, and the reason I put up with the shit all those years. I am 30 years old now and out of game shape and teams are still trying to convince me to come out of retirement.

On the flip side lacrosse is a labor of love and I have turned it into my life and career. Lacrosse > football all day every day. I have never gotten out of bed and wanted to skip lacrosse. Can't say that about football, though that has more to do with the toll taken on my body than the enjoyment of the sport. Football practices are a chore, whereas lacrosse practices are something I look forward to.

>>68517721
I always got the impression (hard knocks and the like) that fringe players had it fucking shit. One mistake and your career is gone

>>68517769
Pretty much 100% true.

I have a friend who I went to college with/played semi-pro with who is a fringe NFL player. He was a starter last year for a team because of injury but got cut and has signed with 3 different teams this offseason already. Uprooting your life to try to make it sucks, then getting cut sucks. He is such a freak athlete he will land somewhere practice squad or 3rd string but he's already been with 7 or 8 different teams and he's only been in the NFL a couple years. But even the fringe guys the money is good.

Another friend of mine was a 7th round pick and a back up for 4 years, and a starter for 2 years, and he has a couple million in the bank. And he was a literally who for most of his career.

Guys at my level have it the worst because when those fringe guys get bumped down from arena league or NFL you basically lose your job. Its not even about talent, the ownership/general managers just slob on their knobs cause they were in the NFL/AFL so they are considered "elite talent" even if they are as good as you or marginally better. Resume in semi pro trumps talent most times.

I only played up until the high school level, but yeah it was really fun most of the time. Games, that is. Practices sucked, especially two-a-days.

>>68517812
Fuck would not mind that literally who money.

What position did you play, and what is your non football job?

>>68517901
I have played every position on offensive and defensive line, tight end, and full back over the course of my career, but mostly DT/DE on defense and T/G on offense. I moved to Center last year and started 10 games there but my shotgun snapping isn't stellar so I wouldn't go back to it if I played again.

Non football job is head coach for a university lacrosse team, and I also run my own club team for high school lacrosse players trying to get recruited for university. My life is sports literally so I'm not mad about it.

>>68517979
Is saltiness at 'what could have been' big amongst semi pros?

>>68514392
Like with any sport, it's fun if you're actually good at it and it sucks if you're not.

>>68517979
what is the most fun position?

As a game, it's fun as shit. But the culture surrounding it fucking sucked, especially in Texas. Shit got serious quick, your whole life became football. I eventually basically broke my back due to two practices a day for three years and that was when I quit. It's a fun game, playing it is the best part, but staying after school for three hours in 100 degree heat bear crawling around the field when you have AP World History homework to do was stressful as all fuck.

I don't do it at a college level but Texas High School football is only a couple levels less serious here.

I played Nose and Right Guard btw. Every high school wants to do meme QB shit which I hated, pulling was fun but not every play holy shit.

>>68519073
Depends on your body type and size. As a big guy (for you), I enjoyed throwing my strength around a whole lot, but having to run routes with guys way faster and more athletic than me is just a giant fuck-no situation.

I guess if you're not taking it seriously, receiver/CB is probably the funnest and has the most opportunity to do cool shit.

>>68518027
Sorry farn, I fell asleep.

Depends on the team and the culture. Successful teams its not cause everyone is there with a goal in mind and want to win. Teams who are "player mills" aka teams who's main goal is to get you signed somewhere else it is for the guys who don't end up getting signed. There are also guys who never played before who are trying out, those are really the guys who harbor those feelings.

>>68519073
I liked playing nose tackle the best. I loved knowing I was singularly responsible for blowing up a run play that attacked my gap.

>>68519240
I played in a meme offense in high school. Pulling guard can be fun in a wing-T (which is what we ran.) Our issue was we had like 4 different stud RBs and nobody who could throw well so with 5 threats to run the Wing T is very hard to defend.