Bears inside linebacker John Timu knows the stress of this weekend on NFL players as well as anyone.
By 4 p.m. EDT Saturday, as many as 1,184 NFL players will lose their jobs as teams cut their 90-man training camp rosters to the regular-season limit of 53.
Some of this weekend's cuts will fall into a practice-squad safety net, as Timu has in years past. Some will latch on with other teams. But others will find themselves in early retirement, the newest examples of how quickly an NFL career can come and go.
The NFL Players Association said that over the last seven years the average career length of players who had accrued seasons _ being on a roster for six games in a given year _ was 3.3 years. The NFL has argued that average career length is better represented by the six-year average for rookies who make teams' opening weekend rosters.
Most around the NFL can recite similar numbers, but actually planning for such a reality is more difficult for players whose main concern is not being released this weekend.
"Especially when you're on the bubble, you want to focus on making sure you become a Chicago Bear, (or) whatever team you are," Timu said. "Everybody tries to make your sole focus on that. ... It's hard to tell somebody whose lifelong dream is to be in the NFL, 'Hey, they have different programs to be successful in life after football.' Because everybody is so locked in."
Robert W. Turner II, an assistant professor in the George Washington medical school's Department of Clinical Research and Leadership, spent eight years interacting with more than 140 football players in all stages of their careers to write his new book, "Not for Long: The Life and Career of the NFL Athlete."
Some players simply can't comprehend such a short career is in store for them, he said.
"We have to remember there's something about young people that is the same throughout generations across time," Turner said. "They think they're invincible and whatever has happened to everybody else is not going to happen to me, and so I'm the exception to the rule."
There are exceptions, but most players will have a tough time sticking around the league beyond age 30.
