States with the most NFL players

whiteathlete33

Hall of Famer
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Messages
12,669
Location
New Jersey
I found this article on Yahoo. It's ranks the states according to which ones produce the most NFL players. Obviously California and Texas are 1 and 2 because of population. The interesting thing is that Louisiana, Mississippi, and Hawaii put the most players in the NFL per-capita. That's because colleges recruit from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Hawaii at higher rates. The enormous amount of Polynesians in the NFL(per population of course) explains why Hawaii is third in per-capita.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Friday-night-stars-California-and-Texas-produce?urn=nfl-272416
 

ToughJ.Riggins

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
5,063
Location
Ontario Canada
And NY has barely any guys in the NFL at all despite the popultion. Football isn't huge in NYC, but there are still plenty of people living upstate. NY is a pretty WHITE state upstate though.

I think Jared mentioned that Rivals.com's rankings of top players in each state "strangely" favored having longer lists in less populated, but blacker states and shorter lists in more populated whiter states.
 

whiteathlete33

Hall of Famer
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Messages
12,669
Location
New Jersey
Tough, the biggest lists are California(100 players), Texas(100 players) and Florida with 100 players as well. When I try to argue with a DWF online about white skill position players not getting recruited I typically get the same response. "Well New Jersey is not a football state." That's the response I got when I mentioned Ray Van Peenan and Dillon Romain. From this list you can that NJ has put a large amount of players into the NFL. Of course Texas and California are going to put more players in the NFL as they have populations of 37,000,000 and 24,000,000 respectively.

Surprisingly, schools in the North Jersey area produce lots of white talent. Don Bosco, Bergen Catcholic, Wayne Hills, and St. Joe's of Montvale are the big ones up here. Greg Olsen and Cushing are two of the local guys who made the pros. The issue I have with these high school football powerhouse schools is that they seem to play blacks at wide receiver and defensive back. Brian Dowling and Ray Van Peenan were exceptions for Wayne Hills as both played running back.
Edited by: whiteathlete33
 

ToughJ.Riggins

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
5,063
Location
Ontario Canada
Yeah, with California and Texas it makes sense, but Jared gave several examples of white states with pretty sizable populations that had shorter lists than blacker states with smaller populations.

Edited to Add: Good thread, I was thinking of starting something on this topic myself.
smiley1.gif
Edited by: ToughJ.Riggins
 

ToughJ.Riggins

Hall of Famer
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
5,063
Location
Ontario Canada
WA33, agreed- when I lived in Jersey- I noticed from reading about H.S sports that many coaches at mostly white schools played black WRs and DBs and mostly black RBs. But Joe Martinek is still the all time career H.S rushing leader in NJ. I think there have been enough white RBs who have played so well in Jersey that maybe things will look up a bit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but before Dillon Romain played at Blair academy he was with Don Bosco wasn't he? He got carries for that renowned Jersey program and so did Brian Toal a few years before, (albeit as a FB, Toal also played LB)
 

whiteathlete33

Hall of Famer
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Messages
12,669
Location
New Jersey
ToughJ.Riggins said:
WA33, agreed- when I lived in Jersey- I noticed from reading about H.S sports that many coaches at mostly white schools played black WRs and DBs and mostly black RBs. But Joe Martinek is still the all time career H.S rushing leader in NJ. I think there have been enough white RBs who have played so well in Jersey that maybe things will look up a bit.



Correct me if I'm wrong, but before Dillon Romain played at Blair academy he was with Don Bosco wasn't he? He got carries for that renowned Jersey program and so did Brian Toal a few years before, (albeit as a FB, Toal also played LB)

Yes Romain played for Don Bosco. Bosco is a powerhouse and usually ranked in the top 3 in Jersey and among the top schools in the country as well. Last year Tony Jones(afflete) was Bosco's starting tailback. Despite being only 5'8 and about 160lbs soaking wet he was offered a scholarship to Colorado. He's listed at 180lbs but that's just hogwash. He was outproduced by several white running backs last year yet he was the highly recruited one.
Edited by: whiteathlete33
 

jaxvid

Hall of Famer
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Messages
7,247
Location
Michigan
Re: population per state, I think it should be adjusted to EXCLUDE hispanics as they are very limited in the NFL. California, Florida and Texas have huge mexican/hispanic populations, as does NY city and surroundings like New Jersey. It would be interesting to see state population minus them and just including whites and blacks who make up virutally all NFL football players (except poly's).
 

jwhite96

Guru
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Messages
206
New York has 54 players currently in the NFL (born in NY). New York has less players per capita than most states for several reasons. Not even half of the public high schools in NYC which has 40% of the state's population,have football teams. Another reason is the relatively small number of 1A college programs: Two. Another reason is they limit the amount of time in practice . For example,spring practice is not allowed. They limit the number of games a school is allowed to play. In Georgia schools play 5-6 more games per season than allowed in NY. New York especially in the NYC suburbs produces good players when they have decent coaching. I have a relative who lives in a NYC suburban county just north of the NJ line. He told me last season, 9 Don Bosco players came from Orange county NY.Edited by: jwhite96
 

jwhite96

Guru
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Messages
206
I found the 54 number on http://www.pro-football-reference.com. I believe the difference maybe due to NY kids commuting to Northern NJ schools or leaving the state entirely. It's relatively common if a teenager in NY is serious about playing 1A football, to transfer to a HS out of state. They mentioned Gronkowski in the article. He may have transferred from a HS in the Buffalo area to a Pittsburgh HS.
 

Don Wassall

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
30,319
Location
Pennsylvania
jwhite96 said:
New York has 54 players currently in the NFL (born in NY). New York has less players per capita than most states for several reasons. Not even half of the public high schools in NYC which has 40% of the state's population,have football teams. Another reason is the relatively small number of 1A college programs: Two. Another reason is they limit the amount of time in practice . For example,spring practice is not allowed. They limit the number of games a school is allowed to play. In Georgia schools play 5-6 more games per season than allowed in NY. New York especially in the NYC suburbs produces good players when they have decent coaching. I have a relative who lives in a NYC suburban county just north of the NJ line. He told me last season, 9 Don Bosco players came from Orange county NY.




Syracuse is basically it, then Buffalo well below the Orangemen. Very strange given the population of NYC and NY State.
 

white is right

Hall of Famer
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
10,022
Don Wassall said:
jwhite96 said:
New York has 54 players currently in the NFL (born in NY). New York has less players per capita than most states for several reasons. Not even half of the public high schools in NYC which has 40% of the state's population,have football teams. Another reason is the relatively small number of 1A college programs: Two. Another reason is they limit the amount of time in practice . For example,spring practice is not allowed. They limit the number of games a school is allowed to play. In Georgia schools play 5-6 more games per season than allowed in NY. New York especially in the NYC suburbs produces good players when they have decent coaching. I have a relative who lives in a NYC suburban county just north of the NJ line. He told me last season, 9 Don Bosco players came from Orange county NY.
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>I have known this for years. Even among Blacks NYC isn't represented well for it's size. I think it's something to do with how the city is layed out. It's not football conducive. It's very dense and has little grass. It's probably why Basketball and street games such as Stickball and Handball were popular games.
<div> </div>
<div>Syracuse is basically it, then Buffalo well below the Orangemen.  Very strange given the population of NYC and NY State.  </div>
 
Top