If you’re concerned they won’t be able to make a living playing their sport, they should consider coaching. My kids are on school and club teams and the coaches lives are centered around workouts, practices, and competitions. Even though the coaches aren’t competing, they get to still live in that environment.
Per Baseball America in 2013 (BA is the Minor League periodical of record) the average age of AAA players in the PCL was 26.8, and in the International League, 27.4. The oldest player in AAA was 29. So, the 30 year old minor leaguer is mostly a myth.
Why wouldn’t a former player look for a job in sports? That’s all they’ve done in their adult lives, and there are tons of jobs in pro sports. Very lucrative ones.
If they can find a job in sports, sure they should if they want. When do they start resigning themselves to that other job is the question. Enjoying being a high level athlete doesn’t mean you’ll like coaching a high school team.
Meh. Changing a career from professional or fully sponsored athlete to whatever does not mean having to give up a sport; it just means moving to masters, regional or recreational levels, and spending less time training and competing.
Some folks like to be employed in their sport after they retire from competition; others (such as myself) don’t. Either way, it doesn’t mean having to give up doing what we love, particularly since the sport we love helps us be healthier and happier.
(And with that, I’m knocking off for the day and putting in some time on the skis before dinner.)
I pretty much agree with everyone else.
Suppose imaginary “Cousin Fred” was a high school baseball star, bounced around in the minor leagues a few years, and finally got cut for good at age 28. He’s never going to be a big leaguer. Ever. He ought to know that by now. Heck, he ought to have known it for some time now.
Suppose, then, he gets a “real” full-time job but continues to work out, train, and play with a local semi-pro team. He still loves the game, and wants to keep doing this as long as it’s fun and as long as he’s good enough.
Where’s the problem? If I thought he was hurting himself, neglecting his daytime job, or neglecting his family, I’d tell him so. If I thought he was delusional, imagining he still had a shot at making The Show, I’d have a heart to heart with him.
But as long as he’s happy and healthy, why should I discourage him from doing something he still enjoys?
If your cousin was oince an aspiring writer, but has given it up, can’t he still read books? If your cousin once lived in Hollywood, and tried unsuccessfully to make it as a professional actress, why shoudn’t she still appear in local theater productions?
Even if the average former pro soccer player or a former Olympic runner can never be content with these activities, what would you have them do? Become a “normal” person who can’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded because they spend five hours a day playing WoW?
This is a bizarre thread. I can’t believe folks are treating it seriously.
I gotta say, I kind of get this.
In triathlon and in obstacle racing, I’m happy just to get out there and do my best. If I break 7:30 for 70.3, or if I finish top 15% in an obstacle race, I’m over the moon, even if that means (and it DOES mean) that I got beat by hundreds (sometimes a thousand) of people. Whatever, dude. Love of the sport, and all that.
But every once in a while, I get asked to come on out to the local rowing club and mix it up with some of the fine gentlemen and ladies down there, just get out and knock around for a bit with some people who just picked up rowing last year to stay fit and get outdoors. And I can’t. It infuriates me. I can’t separate the old competitive fire from the new reality. Inside, I rail that we’re going so slow, and I am confused as to why all these people are smiling and not out of breath.
So I get that it’s tough to go from world-beater to rec league. But then I realize from my own experience that when you start at rec league, there’s a whole different mentality and it’s not exactly a bad one.
That said, I agree with monstro in that I have no idea why this is even a question. I like triathlon. And it gives me something to train for, a goal to strive for, that I train and strive for while everybody else is sleeping.
When my boss complains, or my lady complains, then I’ll think twice about it. But not until then. 
Monstro is perplexed why folks are taking the OP seriously? No one really is except me, because I’m the only one who doesn’t think the OP is demanding his athlete friends become couch potatoes. I think I’ll refrain from further comment until the OP addresses the pile on.
Yeah no one is taking it seriously, except the one example of the guy who out-ran his joints.
Playing Devils Advocate here — some coaches who were damn near professional level athletes can be worse than rabid soccer moms when it comes to their teams and winning. Its almost like they are driven to “find and develop” that one kid who can go the level they didn’t. In other words, if the dude is that seriou]s, coaching could be good for him but not so much for his players. Aim him more towards High Schools and colleges than youth.
It’s a second career issue.
If they have brains then study for a profession, dedicate themselves to that as they did their first career. Often such a job can have a sporting dimension - architects designing facilities, vets dealing with horses, lawyers - meh.
No brains? Creative with their hands, maybe … think second career,what they woul dhave wanted to do had sport not taken over …
I’ve seen this.
I had a young figure skating coach who wanted to go to the olympics. He was a national champion at the junior level. Then for reasons over which he had no control he didn’t go to senior nationals, and never had a chance at the Olympics. He then switched to another sport. I don’t know what happened to him after than.
The sad part of this was that he was an absolutely amazing coach. I mean he had eye opening technical stuff to teach. Have a half hour lesson with him and he could fix technical issues other coaches couldn’t. But he sayed in this out of the way rink so he could pursue his second sport. If he had gone to someplace like Chicago or So CAL to teach he would have had a decent living and taken skaters to Nationals. But the olympics were his dream.