Which States Produce the Most NFL Players Per Capita

One of the best ways to judge the overall quality of a college football program is to examine how many NFL players the school has produced. But what happens before college. Do some states lead the way in producing NFL players?

Friday Night Lights taught us that the best football players come from Texas. Years of SEC dominance in college football indicate that the best NFL players come from the Deep South. And general wisdom seems to be that any state, which grows corn or touches the Gulf of Mexico, is a fertile breeding ground for elite football players. In these states, football is a way of life, so it stands to reason that these areas produce the most NFL players per capita, right?

Wrong.

When it comes to churning out NFL players, the football capital of our country is actually our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. In the map below, you’ll see how many active NFL players per 100,000 people each state has produced.

Be honest. Nobody in their right mind was picking D.C. to be the best producer of NFL players. Not in a million years. With a population of just under 650,000, D.C. has fewer people in it than all but two states (Vermont and Wyoming). But the city churns out 2.1 NFL stars per 100,000 residents. That’s four times better than the national average rate (0.51 Active NFL Players per 100,000 residents), and more than five times the median rate (0.39 Active NFL Players per 100,000 residents), and nearly 50% more than the next closest state, Louisiana.

While we’re on the subject of surprises, look at Hawaii coming in third. Hawaii didn’t say, “Aloha” to statehood until 1959, but with 1.6 NFL players in every 100,000 residents, it looks as though Hawaiians have been playing football for just as long or longer than their mainland brethren. Just look at talented lineman Dominic Raiola (Detroit Lions) and Max Unger (Seattle Seahawks), who both hail from our 50th state.

Now while it is surprising that none of the Gulf Coast states occupy the top spot on the list, there are six southern states in the Top 10, so the South is still maintaining its football street cred. The SEC wins the National Title nearly every year for a reason; it has the most fertile recruiting ground. The Midwest is quite shockingly underrepresented, with only Nebraska cracking the Top 12. And guess what Texas, you come in only slightly better than New Jersey at producing NFL players. Anyone who has ever watched Friday Night Lights might just as well assume that half of the NFL or more hails from Texas, and in fact, the Lone Star State does have the second most active NFL players behind California. But only 11% of NFL players come from the state of Texas, which is home to 8% of the total US population. And although California produces 13% of all NFL players while being home to 12% of the US population, it only produces NFL players at slightly higher rate (0.56) than the national per capital average (0.51).

New England, where Patriot fever is always in full-blown pandemic mode, produces very few players. Especially disappointing is Massachusetts, which has produced just 8 active NFL players from a population of over 6 million, despite the New England Patriots being nothing short of a dynasty for over a decade. Tom Brady and Giselle need to get on that immediately. Also strange is the fact that West Virginia, where there is little else to do beyond play football, has zero active NFL players. I guess Randy Moss, who retired in 2012, was really one of a kind.

The most interesting finding here is that the best NFL teams of the past 15 years aren’t from the biggest football producing states. Nine teams have won a super bowl over the last decade and a half. Of those nine, Massachusetts, 44th on the list in terms of NFL player production, leads the pack in championships, followed by New York in 40th, and Pennsylvania, which is still mediocre in 22nd. The only Super Bowl winning states in the Top 10 are Louisiana (2nd), home of the New Orleans Saints (2009 Super Bowl champs), and Florida (7th), home of the Miami Dolphins (champions in 72 and 73) and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Every other state to produce an NFL champion – Washington, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Colorado – is below the national average in NFL players produced. This can only mean two things. First, if you are a Washington Redskins fan, don’t hold your breath for a championship anytime soon. Second, Vermont should really consider building a football stadium. The Green Mountain Moose would surely run roughshod over the rest of the league.

Courtesy of: ScoreBig

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