# If a NFL player was transported back to ancient times, how well would he fare as a warrior? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483 "2013-06-20T17:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/161 "2013-06-29T20:04:11Z")
> [@Bob\_X](#): > > Are you assuming for some reason that the NFL player could not train? For a decade? 'Cause that’s what it’ll take, and that kind of changes the equation more than a bit. Yes, if we brought up here some of the best Roman soldiers and had them drill the NFL guys for a few years on tactics and weapons, their chances improve dramatically. There’s still the fact that they’re going to have to face actual death and not poop their pants, so who knows in the end what would happen. But just picking upa nd taking NFL guys form the field and dumping in them in ancient Rome is what we’re discussing (I believe). ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/162 "2013-06-29T20:45:43Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > I fully understand that a NFL player who lives in the comforts of the 21st century is not as “hard” as someone living in an ancient civilizations military. Or that they are not psychologically prepared for warfare fought with blades. Although many men have left the NFL in times of need and served in the military… Men like Jack Lummus, Maurice Britt and Rocky Bleier… > > What I take issue with is the idea that physically they would not be as fast or have the endurance, both muscular and cardiovascular, as someone from 2000 years ago. These are exceptional human specimens who have trained their bodies over many years to be at peak physical shape for their body type whether they are a WR or OL. The idea that they are going to be outclassed in terms of speed or endurance by anyone but the most exceptional specimens from what ever time they step out of the hot tub during… just doesn’t make sense to me… do you think a guy like Jason Taylor is going to be struggling to keep up??? > > Even when considering toughness, which is a pretty broad term, I think people are discounting the amount of pain that an NFL player can endure, both from external sources and internal sources… **Sylmar** , PTSD is at an all time high nowadays, and many if not most recruits see much death, let alone on a daily basis even in their non combatant lives. **Kfraser** sportsmen suffer pain for a short space of time, more importantly a KNOWN period of time, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to endure, and they also know that they’re going to get the finest medical treatment going at the earliest opportunity during which time they will rest on their laurels in extreme comfort. Their peak physical exertion will also be for a known and short period of time with frequent breaks. All of this from a comfortable home life, well fed, sleep, warmth etc returned to when the game is over, made all the easier because there is no fear of sudden or slow death today or tomorrow or next week and so on. Even in todays extreme military we have a saying that anyone can be brave when they’ve slept, eaten, been warm and dry in the previous few weeks. That’s why it looks so glamorous in the movies. Sportsmen can go out perform to their limits, safe in the knowledge that once the game is over they will be able to take it easy until the next known period of peak performance. They’re not require to do a long march ONCE, and then that’s it, they have to do long marches day after day, in all terrains and all weather conditions, whether or not they have rotten feet footwear falling to bits, sores on their backs and bodies and thighs from wet and rubbing equipment. And at the speed they’re told to, not the speed that they feel happiest with . Sorry mate they wouldn’t last very long at all . ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/163 "2013-06-29T20:58:45Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > **Sylmar** , PTSD is at an all time high nowadays, and many if not most recruits see much death, let alone on a daily basis even in their non combatant lives. Point taken… ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/164 "2013-06-29T22:06:11Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > Discount their intelligence if you would like. But they wouldn’t be “curing cancer” in the legion… A quick look at google sees mention of a NFL survey that puts the % of graduates at 46%… thats as deep a site as I am going to dig for in a debate about transporting a NFL player back in time… but I would believe you would be hard pressed to find a professional sport with more college graduates… so if the survey is accurate about half of them would have officer level education. Most football players do not take difficukt coursework. It’s common for classes to be created for them that they can do nothing and pass just so that they’re academically eligible. I agree that most other people are seriously underestimating the athleticism though. Those fat linemen are faster than the average american, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/165 "2013-06-29T22:26:52Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > [Well 1.1 million in 2011](http://www.nfhs.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=5751&libID=5773)… I guess you got me… there isn’t 2 million kids playing… How about over a million instead of millions… Good. This makes a large difference, as not everyone who plays football is trying to become a professional football player, and there is a big difference between, say, a pool of one million and a pool of eight million prospective kids. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/166 "2013-06-30T03:06:27Z")
Wow. Being called a h8tr. I’m NFLphobic. Don’t hate them, just scared of them. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/167 "2013-06-30T03:51:49Z")
> [@Animastryfe](#): > > Good. This makes a large difference, as not everyone who plays football is trying to become a professional football player, and there is a big difference between, say, a pool of one million and a pool of eight million prospective kids. I’m curious what percentage of high school football players you think would play professionally if it was feasible for them? ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/168 "2013-06-30T13:13:19Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > **Sylmar** , PTSD is at an all time high nowadays, and many if not most recruits see much death, let alone on a daily basis even in their non combatant lives. > [@Lust4Life](#): > > Sorry mate they wouldn’t last very long at all . Sure I guess the sight of a another man dying would make a NFL player crumble and they could never maintain any amount of courage when under the threat of death… certainly they wouldn’t have the courage under fire to [earn a MoH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Lummus) and definetely not [two of them](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Britt)… Obviously not everyone is capable of that kind of courage… some would crumble, some would persevere, and some would excel… I am sure that not every recruit from ancient times could “hack” the life … and this idea that every ancient soldier is this bulwark of courage… last I looked many ancient battles ended with one side routing… so at least a couple choose to panic and flee when presented with the threat of imminent death… ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/169 "2013-06-30T13:58:42Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > Sure I guess the sight of a another man dying would make a NFL player crumble and they could never maintain any amount of courage when under the threat of death… certainly they wouldn’t have the courage under fire to [earn a MoH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Lummus) and definetely not [two of them](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Britt)… > > Obviously not everyone is capable of that kind of courage… some would crumble, some would persevere, and some would excel… I am sure that not every recruit from ancient times could “hack” the life … and this idea that every ancient soldier is this bulwark of courage… last I looked many ancient battles ended with one side routing… so at least a couple choose to panic and flee when presented with the threat of imminent death… I’m beginning to realize this is a discussion where absolutes are impractical. As Aaron Hernandez demonstrated, there’s still some blood thirsty mofo’s who aren’t shy about spilling blood. I can see were L4L is coming from, it just couldn’t be applied across the board. And war is pretty random. You could have spent decades training from youth and be the most feared fighter on the field just to have a spear leak all your badassedness into the sand. Cumbersome, but I think to be fair we really need to work with qualifiers like," For the most part…" etc. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/170 "2013-06-30T21:26:02Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > If only football didn’t exist. We probably would of cured cancer by now. “Would of” is an infelicitous piece of phrasing when you’re snarking on someone else’s intelligence or lack of. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/171 "2013-07-01T13:54:17Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > “Would of” is an infelicitous piece of phrasing when you’re snarking on someone else’s intelligence or lack of. :dubious: In my defense, I was typing on my tablet. Not sure if it was my error, or if the phone changed my words as it is prone to do. Vexing. I noticed the issue, but by that time the silly 5 minute timer had expired. Not that making such a silly mistake is any indication of my intelligence or lack there of, or that your fixation on a careless grammar faux pas on a forum board that is about discussing interesting topics, not correcting grammar, is any indication of your inability to engage in the current discussion in a meaningful or remotely interesting way. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/172 "2013-07-01T15:09:34Z")
No, indeed. And I’m of the view that it’s possible that an NFL player might prove to be an effective warrior one-on-one, but they’d be starting from the level of a green recruit, and it would be a still steeper learning curve before they’d be any use with or against a Roman legion. The training, organisation and discipline wouldn’t come in a day any more than the building of Rome itself did, and they counted for a heckuva lot, hence the saying (I misremember where from) that one barbarian might be a match for ten Romans, but one thousand Romans were a match for ten thousand barbarians. I don’t know all about the history of Rome, but I do seem to recall that the legions lost only one battle of any consequence in Britain, and then only when the Ninth got themselves cut off and surrounded by a force fifty-odd times their own. Watling Street, a little later, saw the XIVth and XXth legions brush off twenty times their own number and crush the Iceni revolt in a single day’s fighting. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/173 "2013-07-01T15:15:31Z")
Agreed. I think it’s clear, that with significant training the NFL guy would make a hell of a Roman soldier. Without it, he’d make for a hell of a slave. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483.md?page=8)