Good NFL & NHL players (aka long careers) all have CTE

Something like 85% of MLB coaches are former MLB players — Dave Roberts, Aaron Boone, etc. It’s actually rarer to not have been a player. There are plenty of MLB Hall of Famers who also managed — Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Cy Young, etc.

I am almost certainly pulling this out of my ass but smaller team size and the least differences in play style between positions compared to other sports probably plays a factor.

NFL has far more former players as coaches since it has more coach roles

Boxing trainers are always former boxers and soccer coaches are always former players

The only NFL HOF player who also became a good coach that I can think of offhand is Mike Ditka.

Probably because it’s a lot easier to understand the dynamics between five guys on a court, than nine or twenty two

Soccer. Today, off the top of my head:

• Zidane was FIFA World Player of the Year three times and won the Ballon d’Or as one of the consensus greatest players ever. As a manager, he’s the only coach to win the Champions League three times in a row.
• Cesc Fabregas at Como was one of the best midfielders in England before joining Barcelona. He made 110 appearances for Spain and won the league three times, three association cups, the European Championships twice and the World Cup. As a manager, he’s seen Como come up from the Italian second tier to play in Europe and is one of the hot managerial prospects in Europe.
• Xabi Alonso at Chelsea had an unbeaten season with Leverkusen. As a player, he won pretty much everything there was to win as a key midfielder for Liverpool and Real Madrid.

Historically:

• Pep Guardiola just retired as a manager. As a player he was part of the Barcelona Dream Team (more on them later!) and won four league titles and a Champions League. As a manager, he’s arguably the greatest of all time, winning 12 league titles, 12 association and league cups and three Champions Leagues.
• Johan Cruyff was the coach of the Barcelona Dream Team, among others. As a player, he’s the greatest player in the history of the Netherlands and one of the greatest and most influential ever. He won three Ballon d’Ors and was the most important player in the Ajax team that dominated Europe in the early 1970s. As a manager, he won four league titles and a European Cup with Barcelona while completely altering the way football teams were organized on the pitch.
• Carlo Ancelotti won two European Cups and three league titles as a player for Roma and AC Milan; he was in the Serie A Team of the Year five times. As a manager, he might be the greatest manager of egos ever, and won six league titles, six league and association cups and five Champions Leagues as well as numerous Coach of the Year awards across stints with AC Milan, PSG, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

There are a whole bunch of others, probably dozens.

Bill Russell was a bad head coach.

Career .460 winning percentage whenever he coached a team he did not play for.

Wasn’t Ditka a hall of fame tight end?

This is completely anecdotal, but I used to play a video game competitively and I would ask top players for help and some of them had absolutely no idea how to explain what it is they were doing. They were terrible teachers despite being talented at the game. Some people’s brains are just wired to know what they know.

I think a decent example of this is Shaq. He was dominant and clearly knew how to do what he does, but I think he’d make a terrible coach because he doesn’t really know much outside of what he did. But role players like Udoka and Kerr understand the game in totality, or a guy who didn’t even make the league like Mazzulla have to think more creatively.

Guessing coaching is less important in the NBA and it’s more about relationships of stars. Former players get a better shot at the good NBA HC jobs based on relationships.

I think playing basketball has you more aware if your teammates than a lot of other sports. Especially the ones you listed.

Baseball and football outside of maybe the Quarterback has people locked into roles where they don’t need to pay that much attention to how their teammates are moving compared to basketball. Hell baseball has players mostly locked on to just one half of the game.

Maybe you just don’t know shit about other sports?

Currently in the NFL a few of the absolute best coaches were former players:
Jim Harbaugh
Mike Vrabel
Dan Campbell
Demeco Ryans

I’m probably missing a few. And that’s not even considering ones who are retired that I’m not thinking of. Some good assistant coaches too.

NHL has tons. I would wager the majority have been former players over the years.

All the best coaches in the NFL are huge fucking dorks aside from very few guys.

Soccer has this to a way higher degree imo.

I’m a pretty casual soccer fan but I swear every manager is a guy who was a high level player 10 years ago, many even more recent

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I think soccer is the best with superstar or at least great players becoming great coaches.

Zidane, Ancelotti, Pep, Cruyff, Alonso, even Arteta were at least very successful players who became good coaches. And you see a ton more former stars get into coaching compared to other sports

I would argue the NBAs most successful coaches were mediocre players. Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach had enough rings between them to run out of toes to put them on. Phil was a role player and Red never even played professionally.

The nba is easier to have success with just a few players. For example, even with what the dodgers this season, they aren’t a sure bet to win the word series. You can have the best players in soccer and still fail. Same with the nfl.

Per capita, basketball has the highest percentage of Hall of Famers, so there’s simply a larger pool of potentially good-to-great coaches to draw from

The main thing to consider with regards to being a great coach OP is that being a great coach is a huge time commitment, and most people who are highly successful players have enough money that they don’t need to do that level of work post retirement.

Like I have no doubt in my mind that Andrew Luck could be a great NFL coordinator if he set his mind to it, but he probably makes more money now working a much lower stress job where he doesn’t need to be in the public spotlight all the time.

Just based off a quick search the NFL has Ditka, Raymond Berry, Forrest Gregg, Art Shell, Dick LeBeau who were all HOF players who coached at least pretty well.

It feels like something that will be a relic of the past in all sports going forward. Coaching takes a lot more schematic and analytic acumen now than it used to and there’s simply more people outside of star players who might be better at or more willing to embrace that type of thing. Especially with star players making so much money, why grind your way up as a coach in retirement?

The other baseball example but with a big old star next to him is Pete Rose

Well, I’d say wait until this and last generation players hit coaching age. I guarantee it won’t be the same transition.

In hockey you cant teach puck sense , or the intangibles that make a Gretzky or Orr.

You cant teach it.

Being a top flight soccer manager usually takes some level of player experience at this point.

NBA barely has any great players become a good coach. Bird, Wilkens and that’s about it.

Soccer has the most.

i feel like there hasn’t been one in a while though. i thought steve nash would be an excellent coach and he didn’t do very well

Phil Jackson is also a good example.

You’d have a harder time finding a manager in the MLB that wasn’t a former player.