Where Do NFL Players Come From?

An NFL team's search for the best of the best spans the globe! So where exactly do NFL players come from? Listen as Mike Yam and Michael Robinson expand on the topic here, on the NFL explained. podcast. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
with I Heart Radio. You know it is actually catching on.
I saw you post the tweet Emerald where you said
hello beautiful people. That's how I opened the last show.
I was like, all right, here we go, here we go?

(00:28):
All right, what's going on? Everyone? My camel out? My
my friend? Who's do you never bring the blank? I
just realized that as I looked at the hands, Well, um,
the super Bowl ring is about ring? Who wants to
walk around with that there are? Is it somewhere safe
or absolutely it's somewhere safe, no pun intending? Okay, Oh

(00:48):
I like that. I like that? All right. Um, it's
a brand new edition of NFL Explained. We have been
having an absolute blast doing this show. I'm gonna make
you jealous a little bit later on this episode. So
that is what we call in the business a tease.
We have gone down two out of the five international
game MSWY two they have been played. It has been exciting.

(01:09):
We've had some dramatic moments. Today. We're actually gonna be
talking a little bit about where NFL players are from,
both internationally and here domestically, and there's some real nuance
on the domestic side and some trends that we found
absolutely fascinating. But I know for you, m Rob, you
are entrenched in youth football. Explained to me how the
league can sort of move this needle internationally and grab

(01:31):
even more players because we're seeing a contingent have some
success on Sundays. Yeah. Absolutely. First of all, this about
finding the best coaches, the best football coaches Football Americano
UH coaches in the world, and making sure that the
product is being spread and taught by just the best
teachers that our game has. And obviously some of the
best they're in the National Football League with jobs and

(01:53):
leading teams. But to me, it starts there, just how
is the game being presented to young people in other countries?
How is the game being presented to the fan bases
and other countries. That's number one, and number two is
just and I think you hear Troy Vincent talk a
lot about this, it's just finding those entry points. I
think flag football has taken off. It's the fastest growing
sport in North America. Girls flag football is also taken off,

(02:16):
and it's just finding that entry point that Yeah, maybe
eleven on eleven tackle isn't for everybody at first? Maybe
maybe this is everybody at first. And honestly, I'm not
gonna lie until I went to the World Games and
went to the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, over the
past year and saw flag football competition live in motion

(02:36):
and to see the excitement from the fan basis and
the international fan basis and the people with the flags
just going crazy. I mean, it did something to me, man,
and I think flag football can be that entry point
that spreads the game. You Now, some people might be
listening to this and said, all right, I'm Robert, I
get it. You work for NFL Network, is an NFL podcast.
Here's what I can tell you. I remember being in

(02:56):
studio and we were doing live hits. You were down
and now about, and you were hot because I saw
you beating up sweat. You were legit excited. And every
time you've had an opportunity to talk about flag football,
there is a You're always positive, but there is like
this another level of excitement that you have, like you
legitimately love it absolutely and the excitement comes from Again.

(03:20):
I never thought that flag football can get to a
level that maybe people are can make a living off
maybe this is something that can be televised and can
have a life of its own. And then again to
see it in motion in person, to see how excited
the fans are about the players, and then it's a
totally different game. Really, it's it's not quite playing quarterback

(03:40):
and flag football is a little different to player quarterback
and eleven on eleven tackle. When I saw the differences
and then I saw some of the similarities, I just
got excited about it because again, when you see people
who criticize the game, they only they criticize the you know,
the violence of the physical side of it. When you
talk about flag football, that totally alleviates that. And it's
funny because you mentioned women's flag football and I saw

(04:02):
some of the competition on NFL Network and it got
me thinking about being fell and what they've instituted. This
International Pathway program which they started in tween. It actually
aims to provide international athletes the opportunity to compete and
earn a spot on an NFL roster the league and
this is really cool host combines and other countries to
find talent abroad. One of our friends and colleagues, Maurice Jones,

(04:23):
Drew always talks about a lot of these combines and
opportunities for players that live abroad to get an opportunity
to play in the league. And I know what you're thinking, like,
how many dudes actually make it? Well, I got that
answer for you. Last year, the NFL posted combines in
England and Mexico that included fifties six participants from sixteen countries.
Past combine participants who are currently on NFL rosters f

(04:46):
a Obada who plays for the Commanders, Yakob Johnson Germany
playing for the Raiders, Jordan my Alatta, who just got
a huge deal from the Eagles. He obviously is from Australia.
So in fact, as we taped this podcast, two international
combine is taking place in England. Forty four athletes from
a number of country trees across Europe. They're going to participate,

(05:07):
with twelve from Nigeria, for from New Zealand to from Mexico,
and one from Japan. There are also a number of
professional leagues abroad, with the most competitive being in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland,
Italy and Japan. Those leagues have been in operation for
at least twenty five years. You're talking about former n
c Double A Division one athletes that are overseas trying

(05:29):
to make this thing a career because they love the sport.
In fact, actually one of those college players, Chris mcclarin,
who went to Michigan, helped launch the Chinese National Football
League in Hell. Yeah, shout out to Chris. That's what
I'm talking about. So it feels like there's a lot
m rob that is just a hurdle for some of
these leagues and momentum to get bigger high schools, secondary schools,

(05:51):
just in general. How do you increase that footprint? Do
you think? Well, that's a that's a such a deep question. Well,
first of all, I talked about before the coaching again,
the ambassadors of the league. Obviously, you know former NFL
players that go out in Kentuck and speak the story
of the National Football League. I think our NFL legends
are the best ambassadors of growing the game. But again,

(06:13):
the coaching, when these leagues start up in other countries,
we we definitely have to make sure the people coaching
the fundamentals are coaching it the right way and making
sure that the football is being played the right way.
That way, some of the injuries that we've seen in
our games past doesn't wear it's ugly. Head back up again.
But look, my question about our game growing is in

(06:33):
some of these other countries. You know, it's not by mistake, Mike,
that of the National Football League is African, American are black.
I say that by saying based off our status and
based off the history that we've had here in America.
I've seen it because I run you football, that community
chases the dream like no other community I've ever seen.

(06:56):
Right Like when some of these communities that I run
these youth football leagues out of, it's just you football.
And I'm always telling the adults like, do you really
have to speak that way to each other? Do you
is not that serious? We're playing a game, And I
always have to keep reminding them of of you know,
our kids supposed to be happy. Our kids are learning
how to deal with adversity based off how the adults

(07:18):
in their life deal with adversity. And so I always say,
even when I talk to guys the league office, Troy
Vincent and things like that, as we're growing this league,
I'm always looking at the communities and the countries that
were going to and if there's enough of that struggle
so to speak, or experience so to speak, from the
population that will make them go after the game so hard.

(07:39):
I think that's vitally important. Does it feel like they're
almost hitching the wagon to a dream? Is that a
bad way of describing it, um, But I think it's not.
I think that's a lot of communities just in general,
and and a lot of players that are thinking along
those lines, like you and I and and hell you played.
You were in the locking room with more guys, certainly
than than I've ever been around. I've heard some of

(08:01):
those stories where you know specific players, guys that we
both know that actually worked at NFL Network that weren't
some environments that weren't always the healthiest the safest for them.
And in a lot of ways. One guy I'm thinking
of in particular, he's like, Yo, the community actually helped
me because they were protecting me to make sure that
it's like, no, we want this dude out of here.
This is his chance, world class athlete. He was a

(08:23):
first round pick, played the wide receiver position. He's the
guy that I'm thinking of. But that's just one story.
There's gotta be a not a million, but there's gonna
be a ton of stories and people that have had
that similar path tons. I mean, you can almost go
by almost all. You know, all the guys that are
in all the athletes are in the National Football League,
especially the African Americana black ones, a lot of them
have that that same experience. I come from the streets

(08:45):
of Richmond, Virginia. I always tell people I owe so
much to that community. And you know, some of my
contemporaries like Mike, why do you say that? And I'm like, well,
I needed to go through some of that stuff. I
needed to encounter that drug peddler that always tried to
get me to buy something from him when I was
thirteen years old. I had to encounter him. I had
to have that experience to make me the guys that
I am right now, and those experien aparances they empower

(09:07):
our athletes, and those experiences of what make our athletes
tough enough to make it in the Nation Football League,
Because Mike, it ain't easy physically and mentally, it definitely
ain't easy. Well, we're going to go through some of
the numbers and how difficult the path is and put
it into perspective. But when it comes to international players
having success. He actually saw nine players born internationally that
are Pro Football Hall of Famers. One guy in particular

(09:29):
that stands out to me Martin Anderson from Denmark. I
don't even realized that he was an international test The
only one who thinks more and Anderson and like the
single you know back in the day. There's a couple
other notable current NFL players that were born abroad. I
feel like every time I do a highlight on NFL Network,

(09:49):
Chase Claypool out of Canada, like his name always pops up.
Daniel Hunter is certainly another name. Young Wayku the kicker
from Atlanta. Mitch which Nowski, who played at Utah, covered
him when he was playing for Kyle Winningham Kyle Hamilton's
I don't even know. We just had the draft. I
don't even know the come to that was in our
research packet. They sent it to us digitally and the

(10:10):
real copy I had the hard copy of the digital one.
Let me just tell you. It got to the point
when I was doing the draft on NFL dot Com,
I was talking to our researcher and I would say
who was the last pick? Because I couldn't process it. Anymore.
You cut it around three and four, You're like, what
is going on right now? This thing is moving so
darn fast. Our neighbor to the Northea, Canada. They actually

(10:30):
currently have the most international players over twelve, safety Javan
Holland another guy that actually we talked a whole lot
about around the draft, Josh Palmer, the wide receiver. Those
guys from Canada. The country with the second most is
Nigeria with over ten, including Nelson Agalore the wide receiver,
and Manuel Ogba and em the players from the smallest countries,

(10:50):
Rakim Nuniez roaches from Belize. You know the population of Belize.
How about our research team is so damn good they
put them in there. I was like, how big is Belize?
I know about Belize? Four and twelve thousand. Yeah, man,
we got like, that's like a little city. Um, you
actually hung out, if I'm not mistaken on Good Morning
Football with the wide receiver from the Bahamas, Michael Strong. Yes,

(11:13):
I did. Man. We had some issues trying to say
his name. He corrected us, He got us right. It
was all good and get your mind right. Danielle Hunter
out of Jamaica, an absolute monster from Minnesota, Jamie Gillen
out of Scotland. Here we go from the Giants, and
a guy that I got to know pretty well, Penney
Sewell out of American Samoa. Here's what's wap. Look, we

(11:33):
got a lot on America's Samoa here and it's been
a pipeline. I think a lot of our fans listening
to this podcast are familiar. They're like all of their
students in the NFL. Dudes, a college there's a real
West coast college contingent there. That is a massive pipeline
for some of the big boys up front. And you
know this, man, because Penn State, you know, you had
some of those what we like to call the country
strong dudes, some of those big boys up front out

(11:56):
on the West Coast. A lot of the college programs
have to go and recruit in America's Samoa, and there
is a great tradition of sending players the league. Four
are actually in the NFL. The population just check this
out here of American smallA is right around just under
sixty thousand, which means the chances of making it to
the league are about one in fifteen thousand. You know,

(12:17):
you're all right. I think someone hears that, it's like, oh,
it doesn't seem like a great lotto ticket. That's a
great lot. It's a great lotto ticket. Just given you
context here, a rough estimate in the U S would
be one in two hundred thousand that lotto ticket. Now
it's going to be American Samoa one. So you are
fourteen times more likely to make the NFL if you're

(12:38):
born in American Samoa, then then the US and m
Rod that actually doesn't top the city of Booty, Louisiana,
who had four players in the league at one time
from just one town of three thousands. That's something in
the water, Mike, gotta be something to jil Man. I
just turned forty one. I've been waiting for my growthsburg
and the whole entire time. It's just in northern New

(13:01):
Jersey where I grew up. The water. It wasn't like that.
M Welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcasts, Michael Robinson,
Mike am with you, all right, So the world is
feeling a little bit smaller here. But how realistic is
it that you think, I'm rob we get an international

(13:21):
NFL franchise within the next ten years. Um, if you
would have asked me that five years ago, I would
have doubted you. But now, especially with the explosion. I mean, look,
that flag football experience at the World Games was an
eye opener for me because I'm telling you, folks, he
really does love it. I'm telling you like it was
an eye opener because I just didn't know how people

(13:45):
outside of the United States would digest the game of football,
and to see the love for flag football, just to
see the love for the game. I mean, the Mexican
women ended up winning the goal down there in Birmingham,
and they were bigger fans of the National Football League
than I am. And this is my job, this is
what I do. I look at film every single day,

(14:05):
I mean analyze everything. And they were telling me things
about the Seahawks, they were telling me things about the
Raiders that still I mean, they knew everything. They knew
everything about the game, and so that was an eye
opener for me. Um. I do think it's gonna be realistic.
I do think that the world is getting smaller, as
you mentioned. I do think there will be some small
hurdles we gotta get over. I think we gotta understand

(14:27):
that these athletes are human beings. And human beings. The
body requires recovery. The body requires um stopping, Mike, I'm
gonna do that fast. We talk about that on another podcast. Um.
But the body requires some stuff. And you know, let's
say we get and I can see this happening. A

(14:49):
tech giant in China or one of these other rich
countries say Hey, I want to participate. I want to
be I want to be in the club, I want
to own a I want to bring football, the American
version of football to the country and open up the
gateway that way. Yes, I can see that happening. And
I and see the NFL being flexible enough, being showing
its ingenuity and being able to, yes, have a franchise

(15:12):
off Land, not on the United States, and being able
for them when they are on the United States, have
a facility and be able to operate. It would be fun.
It definitely five international games on the slate this season.
To me, it almost makes sense. And I know there's
a lot of people way smarter than I am, but
I almost feel like, why not just have a division
in Europe or globally right, so that you have multiple

(15:35):
teams located geographically in the same area, so it does
limit some of the travel for a portion of that,
and of course the valuations for NFL franchises might tip
a little bit with a little more inventory, so the
owners might not want something like that. But to me,
it would just kind of be cool to have, you know,
the Europe Division, It would be cool. And when we

(15:56):
had NFL Europe, which was a developmental league for US,
it costs each owner. I think somebody told me at
around a million dollars or something like that to be
able to keep that league going. I say that to say,
for anything like that to happen, our owners are going
to have to put some money into the messaging, gonna
have to put some money into how the game is

(16:16):
digested into other countries. And I think they're doing a
great job with it with all the international games that
we're having. All Right, So we kind of dipped into
some numbers and the difficulty of making it in the
NFL depending on where you live, but which states actually
send the most players to the league? M Rob, did
you know there's been six NFL players from your high
school from my high school? Six? Oh? Really? Ken Willard

(16:40):
me Uh, Dre branch Uh, Jonathan Lewis, Maurice candidate. Yeah,
I think I named Okay. By the way, when I
threw that your way, I thought it was just gonna
like slide out of your mouth th real quick. Nothing
wrong with that. Um So, I don't know. You tell
me men and Virginia. Is that you know a top
three state to produce NFL talent? Well, I think per capita,

(17:07):
but just by sure numbers, California, Texas, the Florida's of
the world, of the North America probably have better numbers.
It's actually a great response your guests on Texas and California.
Not not awful here because Texas actually has the most
NFL players as a kickoff of this season with a
hundred and ninety nine. Florida is second with five in

(17:28):
California third with hundred and sixty six. Uh four and
five not exactly easy to guess, but I'll put you
on the spot five state. They get a lot of
recruits from the big thirty three game, which is Pennsylvania, Ohio. Ohio, surprisedly,
I think has a lot of guys coming out of this.

(17:49):
I'm gonna say Ohio. Uh. Somewhere down south like an
Alabama or something like that, or Georgia Gia, Georgia. Good guests,
Good guests. I would have guessed New Jersey because, which
I know sounds kind of odd, but I went to
high school in New Jersey and I do know that
high school football New Jersey is huge, So I thought
that there was a chance for my home state. Not

(18:10):
the case, but ding ding ding for you. George actually
trails California with a hundred and fifty one, only fourteen
players behind California, despite being almost three times smaller. Ohio
a fairly distant fifth seventy four NFL players. Dive into
the numbers a bit here, a little more deeper, and
you can look at who actually produces the most players

(18:32):
per capita, which is really the number that matters the most. Right,
it's Georgia. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are in the top four.
There's a ton of talent in those areas. The South,
em rob you know, they love football. Smaller communities like I, look,
they're not big settings, right, Like, I don't think of
them as having huge resources. So like, how do you
explain it? Well? Um, can I just be honest? Yeah,

(18:56):
don't lie to me, slavery, Um, that's a dark history.
Our past in America. And again when you look into
the history of of where some of these slave camps
were and where plantations were and things like that, a
lot of these genetics just haven't left the area. And
let's be honest, right when you talk about some of
these areas, some of these players are faster, bigger, stronger

(19:19):
th That's just the way it goes. There's not there's
not no mistake. Why you know, the bear Bryants to
the world, even Joe paternal for while they look down
in the South to get a lot of their talent,
And to me, it's because of the bloodlines that have
resided down there ever since that dark past, ever since
that dark time time in history, that just hadn't gone anywhere.
And Rob, here's another thing that to circle back on

(19:40):
something we talked about a little bit earlier. In Georgia
and Louisiana sending approximately one out of every seventy thousand
residents to the League. What's kind of a mind boggling number,
one out of every seventy thousand. Yeah, you're you're more
than twice as likely to go to the league if
you're from those two states. Then if you are from Texas,
which I wouldn't have guessed that. I mean either Texas

(20:03):
Lives Eat Slaves football Man. Welcome back to the NFL
Explained Podcasts. Michael Robinson, Mike dam with you. You know
at the top of the show, I said I would
make you jealous, right, yeah, you don't like people are
sliding into my d M, d D. I'm not jealous.
My wife listens. I love my wife. Maybe I don't

(20:26):
want nobody in my d M. That's Mike Yam saying
he likes this like that. It's not like that. Although
I do screenshot all of the questions, we have a
nice little NFL Explained text, Rade, do you actually have
been impressed by some of the questions that we've been getting?
So I promise, if you have a question about the
NFL you don't know who to ask, you want us
to cover a topic, you can slide into either one

(20:46):
of our d M SAM slide into mine, and I
promise we'll work that into you one of our male
Bag episodes coming up in just a bit. But m
rob you want to go real deep on this because
we can go there. Okay, Um, NFL rosters from week
one by city. This is crazy to me, so Houston,
Texas and Miami, Florida tops of the list, both nineteen

(21:07):
a piece, Detroit, Michigan sitting at sixteen, Tampa fifteen. How
about this one, Bradens In Florida fourteen. One in every
four thousand residents are going to the league from there.
How's that even possible? No idea? Man, have you been
to Bradens In No, I haven't even heard of it.
This show, I'm gonna be totally honest with people. I mean,

(21:29):
it's all go up, you know. Yeah. You talked about
my high school and even though we're pretty good, we
won the state title in one One of my best
friends is the high school coach there. He's head football coach.
The four high schools with the most players in NFL
are all from Florida. Wow, that's crazy. So I keep
hearing about like I amg academy and all this stuff. Now,

(21:51):
the first I had ever heard about something like this.
You have friends that played pro tennis? No, okay, I
just curious because you're an athlete and like I know you'll,
all you do is just kind of roll in the same. Yeah, professionally,
don't get me wrong. I have some some friends that
plus at that certain point they stopped. Okay, So what
I remember when I was covering tennis earlier in my career,

(22:12):
I was always fascinated by the young guys who were
and females too. They would go down to these schools
down in floor and like live there and train them
all year round. And I think that might be an
answer to why Texas, California, Florida has so much success
because you know, we talked about genetics a little bit
earlier here on the podcast. But whether I actually think

(22:33):
makes a difference where I grew up in the northeast,
like you know, man like when it comes, yeah, like
that it actually hurts. The winter is coming, like actually hurts.
The summertime it's so humid where you just don't even
want to go outside and practice. And so yeah, I
agree some of those areas the weather does play a
huge point, especially especially when you talk about some of
the southern states like Texas, weather definitely comes into play. Okay,

(22:56):
let's wrap up here with a little quarterback talk, because
it's it's football talks. So it comes down to the
to the signal callers. Only two quarterbacks from the same
high school not named Peyton and Eli, who Both went
to Istore Newman High School in Louisiana. So the only
two quarterbacks from the same high school not named Peyton
and Eli to win a Super Bowl are Drew Brees

(23:18):
and Nick Foles. How did I know that? You didn't
know that? Yeah? I feel like when Nick Foles was
leading the Eagles during a Super Bowl run, I felt
like that was That's something we talked about. He and
Drew Brees went to Westlake High School in Austin, Texas.
Not to be out done here, Emerrad, how about Bobby Lane.
The dude won three NFL championships in the fifties, defending
Super Bowl champ Matthew Stafford. Both of those dudes went

(23:40):
to Highland Park High in Dallas. That one you did
not know. I'm not that much of a historian of
the game, all right. You you obviously had a lot
of success as a quarterback at Penn State. We highlighted
a lot of things that you did really well. Um,
most quarterbacks from a specific state, anyone come to mind

(24:01):
any of the guys that you played with? Two, I
would guess California. Just again, whether size of the state
all the above, not a bad guess. Texas, Most quarterbacks
with seven Calie five, Georgia four, Florida three, and Hawaii
to How about this one? How about this one? Here
we go two dudes, sam High School to A and

(24:25):
Marcus Mariota Saint Louis School in Honolulu. That's crazy. That's crazy.
And you know what I feel like when I was young,
every time I've seen Hawaii play on television, they were
just throwing the ball like for so many yards. That
may come into play as to why they get so
many quarterbacks. There's some talent that's out there for sure,
and they love football in that state, specific areas schools.

(24:48):
Any rhyme or reason on the four and five star
talent that they produce, oh man um, I don't think
it's that much of rhymo reason, but I do think
again in areas where they're heavy populations of black or
African American communities, Yeah, you're gonna see the passion for
the sport. You're gonna see the drive to get to
the national football it's just a little bit more intensified

(25:08):
again based off of the history. Alright, One other note,
I throughout Alaska a little bit earlier, largest state by
by size by mass Alaska only thirteen NFL players ever
or right now ever? Yeah, yeah, evere. I thought it
would have been at least man. No, it's cold, it's cold.

(25:30):
I get it. I know. I made reference to it
a little bit earlier. If you have some questions about
the NFL things that you want answered, please send us
those notes. You can follow us on social media at
Mike Underscore. Yeah, at Real Mike Rob on Twitter, and
that's also your I G handle too at Real Underscore
Mic Underscore Rob. That's the only difference. I'm like, oh, wow,

(25:51):
you have to use the underscore too, I know, man,
somebody had it. Man, you know, don't get me started.
And there's some people out there to just take your name. Yeah,
that's not cool. No, not cool. And he's he's actually
a big time people have mine and I have to
use an underscore or as well. I always appreciate you
guys listening. And of course, where do players come from? Well,
we just explained it to you.