I feel like one of the main differences between the NFL and the NBA is the NFL almost requires you to love the game as a prerequisite for playing professionally.
With the NBA not only is the bread guaranteed, you can lack a key skill at your position and still earn relatively well if you’re athletic and behave in a professional manner. And the sport has gotten so popular globally you can prolly get good bread playing overseas with good college tape.
I feel like with basketball the risk reward can make sense even if you don’t love the sport. But with football the risk reward proposition don’t seem to add up unless you really love it cuz who would crash into other people in helmets at several miles per hour for 60 minutes 20 times a year for non-guaranteed money unless they really loved it.
You could say “well what if you have no other skills outside of that sport” but I’m never gonna say someone has no skills outside of a sport. Just my opinion though fr.
And I think that love that football players have for the sport creates a different type of culture around it at the highest levels, where you see the love and loyalty for that sport and the teams come out a lot more. And that culture has been and continues to be really good for the NFL.