How much of the year do NFL players actually work?
Twelve months out of the year. If you are not playing football, you are training for football. You are getting your body in condition so you can make a team. Or if you are a free agent, you are keeping your body in shape so when a team calls and wants to work you out, you are in shape to play. So it is definitely a twelve month out of the year job. After the season ends in January, players are off for about a month. You have got about a month off. Then you have to report back to your training facility in March for off season conditioning. That consists of four workouts a week where you are lifting, running, running routes. If your outfit is a lineman, you work on stance and starts, all that stuff. And then as you do that for the next four to five months, of all that conditioning, getting your body in shape, you report to training camp around August. Then you have your four pre season games and those four to five weeks you are trying to make a football team. It is very competitive. You have to bring your A game everyday. If you get hurt you are most likely not going to make the team unless you are a big name guy. Then you go through the season which is sixteen weeks long which takes you all the way to the end of the year. So basically eleven out of twelve months you are working football and you are trying to keep your job or get a job.
