What Education Is Needed to Become a Professional Football Player in Canada?

You can’t simply go to college, study for four years, and receive a diploma that makes you a professional football player. While doing so would probably be easier than the real process of becoming a professional athlete, that is not the case. Usually, you will have to focus on your sports career at about the age of 15 or 16, which means that you’re still in high school at that time.

Regardless of whether or not you decide to go to college to receive a diploma, doing so won’t make you a professional athlete. To become a football player, you need to have the physical and emotional strength, stamina, dedication and eat healthy. While the NFL and CFL do not have any particular requirements regarding the education of their players, you may want to get a college degree and pursue your career at the same time. Overall, let’s go over what you need to do to become a professional football player in Canada.

General requirements

No matter how good you think you are at playing football, the National Football League and the Canadian Football League have some ground rules in regard to who can play in their teams. First and foremost, you have to be a good athlete. While this point is pretty obvious, we should mention it anyway. The sphere of football in Canada is undoubtedly competitive, which means that you will have to make yourself stand out among all the other players. While physical strength is necessary for football, a good player needs more than muscles. Dedication, ambitions, and stamina are some of the key characteristics that will help you turn your interests into your career.

Secondly, you will have to have obtained your high school diploma at least three years prior to playing in either NFL or CFL. Now, this statement means two things. You have to have your diploma, and you have to train and play somehow for three years afterward to be noticed. While it is easy to purchase cheap essays in Canada and graduate from high schools with flying colors, the second part is where it becomes tricky. Many scouts pay attention to those playing football in college, which means that you can work both toward a diploma and your career at the same time. While we definitely don’t want to discourage you, it is always reasonable to have a backup plan, especially when it comes to something so important as a career.

Value of education

We’re sure that you’ve heard about how important education is a million times before, but it never hurts to refresh your memory. We have already established that you have to be a high school graduate to get into CFL or NFL, but what about college or university? In a nutshell, you don’t have to receive formal education past high school to become a professional athlete. Nobody will tell you how to be a good cornerback in a Philosophy or Theology class, but college has something different to give you.

First of all, if you look at things realistically, you’ll realize that the career of a professional athlete is usually no longer than 3-4 years. If you retire before the age of 30, the most natural question is “What do you do next?” This is where the value of education comes into play. Of course, you can start studying after you’ve completed your career as a professional football player, but not many people actually do so.

On the contrary, if you start working toward your degree right after you graduate from high school, you will have a backup plan to stick to when your career is over (doesn’t sound too positive, we know). Many professional players later move on to become coaches, sports psychologists, or sports rehabilitation therapists. This list suggests that you don’t have to move far from your sphere of interests after you retire. On the contrary, you can explore some other possible careers in management or business, both of which can be related to football, or even languages and arts. You can pick whatever works best for you, but we would highly recommend that you receive at least some form of formal education past high school to make the most out of your career as a professional football player.

When it comes to becoming a professional football player, the field is unquestionably demanding, competitive, and saturated. The CFL and NFL won’t ask you to show them your college diploma to get accepted, and they probably won’t teach you how to be a good team player in a Literature class. Nevertheless, we still believe that receiving education past high school while working toward your dream career is worth the hustle, and many professional athletes believe so too.