re: How hard is it to get a good career in sports?

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I'm surprised you had so much trouble. There's openings every year working in Athletic departments at different universities. Granted you have to have a certain amount of experience depending on the position, but you still should of had a shot.

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There's very few openings at any given time and tons of people applying for them. And they barely pay a livable salary. For instance, my buddy who got a job at Michigan was paid like 20-25k/year and was set up to live in a spare bedroom of someone else who worked in the ADs office. He moved from Nashville to Ann Arbor for that. It worked out for him eventually, but it was a long road of making no money and working shitty hours. Then, when he was in line for a promotion after a spot opened, they told him they had to interview him out of a formality requirement but it was his if he wanted.....they hired someone from outside the AD. So, while there may be "openings", they're still not easy to get nor do a lot of them pay enough for someone to be willing to relocate across the country.

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How does coaching and rising up the ranks work? How did Belechick get to where hes at?

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If you're serious and don't have NFL or collegiate experience...

Get a teaching degree or certification. Apply to every teaching opening everywhere and make it clear up front in your cover letter that you are interested in coaching. Let's say football.

You'll get hired somewhere. Probably have multiple offers. You'll start with 9th grade football.

Become an expert in what the head coach and the varsity coaches are doing. Both sides of the ball. Be able to converse with them on a peer-to-peer level but show the absolute respect to their positions.

Get there at 6am and leave at 9pm. Even in the off season. Watch film. Ask questions. Get to know your players.

Attend every conference and convention you can possibly afford and find the time for. Watch online videos. Enroll in courses. Read books on leadership, management, and success.

Be a successful teacher.

Hopefully you get pulled up to the varsity level within a year or two. If not, look for smaller high schools that need varsity coaches and apply.

Succeed at the next level.

At those conference and conventions, find coaches that are coaching at the college level. They are part of a very extensive network. Meet them. Express interest in coaching college. When I was coaching - before his stint at Auburn - I got to know Tony Franklin at his clinics. He hooked me up with 9 GA openings. They were small schools. Not SEC schools, but openings. I could have gotten a master's degree, college coaching/management/analyst experience, and recommendations from college coaches. I didn't go through with it, but that was the path.

From there, you apply to job openings. DIII schools. Maybe high school coordinator positions. Succeed at each job you get. That's the hard part about coaching. You can be a good coach, but you have to have the numbers and the wins to prove it. Which means you need to really connect with your players.

From there it's just winning and establishing yourself as a figurehead in the sport. See where it goes. But honestly, even if you stop there, you're what? 30? 35? Making $100k+ to coach at a large high school or small college?

That's a "good career" as you put it in your OP.

I was going to say getting into the NFL is likely dang near impossible. But getting into coaching at the high school level isn't that tough. There's tons of crap schools always hiring folks with no type of experience.

Getting into college level is tougher, but not impossible. Find a GA position at a school somewhere and get to work. Working d1 will be tough as hell if you're not an alumni. But smaller schools such as D3 or even NAIA much easier to break into

If I remember correctly, Belichek's dad was a coach. And he's been around it his whole life. He coached LB's, then was a DC.
And he works harder than you'd ever want to.

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I'm surprised you had so much trouble. There's openings every year working in Athletic departments at different universities. Granted you have to have a certain amount of experience depending on the position, but you still should of had a shot.

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Yea I was surprised too. I worked my arse off for LSU for a long time and was disappointed with the opportunities (or lack thereof). It also didn't help that state universities were undergoing massive budget cuts at the time I got out of school.

What about Skip bayless?

Skip was a newspaper writer in Dallas for a long time

Only time he gained any traction in his career was when he pissed off Aikmen or Jerry Jones, so eventually he made the turn to TV and found out he can use that same trolling strategy he used when he covered the cowboys and turned it into a national brand and sold his idiocy to a lower intelligent audience that buy into it. And he cashed out when ESPN exec moved to FS1 and backed up the brinks truck for him


The key to pretty much every sports figure is a lot of work, a ton of luck, and knowing the right people

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Do you think I know people working in sports? i cant even get hired at a smoothie king

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You came on too strong on this one. Look up subtle in the dictionary

im not troling, im in wonder how bayless and stepen A get so much money

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im not troling, im in wonder how bayless and stepen A get so much money

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they were journalists for decades for various newspapers before mass media created a niche for hot take sports television shows.