If you could be a professional athlete......

If you want to show up, make good money with a good pension, NFL long snapper is a sweet deal. Some of these guys have 10 or 12 year careers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Pontbriand

 

MLB starting pitcher. Whoever said it earlier echoed my thoughts: Ball in my hand. In Little League and Babe Ruth, I lived for the days when I was starting. (I didn't throw hard enough to pitch for my high school team, though.)

Great thread idea.

 

Pro Surfer

 

YES!!

 

Not many at all in that category. Probably none.

Morten Andersen probably had the greatest career ever for a wuss like me who loves football but can't handle the contact. Played indoors for almost his entire career, primo conditions for a PK. Did he ever get hit, or ever tackle anyone? And he was eligible for his NFL pension about 1 year after he finally retired.

I would take his career in a heartbeat.

 

Yeah, lefty one-out specialist junkball pitcher would be good. Going to try to raise my son to be that.
Make base or a little more, pitch for 10-12 teams in a 15-16 year career and retire at 37, 38. Save half of what ya make and have a nice nest egg to do something else in your 40s/50s and retire again at 60.
Why didn't someone spell this out to me at 13?

 

Don't know how complete these stats are, but according to this, he had one tackle and one assist in his 25-year

http://www.nfl.com/player/mortenandersen/2499416/careerstatscareer.

 

David Ross is the kind of guy I'm talking about. 20 years might be an exaggeration, but he's got 12 years in and has made about 15M for his career so far. I'd imagine there are a lot more guys like him than like Morten Andersen who is one of the top 2 or 3 kickers in the history of the league, dome or no dome. The typical kicker has a pretty unstable existence.

 

A good example of a journeyman kicker? Jose Cortez: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Cort%C3%A9z

 

If I can be a star, I want to be a Jordan/Kobe/LeBron star in the NBA.

If I'm just in a league, barely hanging on - NFL punter. Mid-to-high 6 figure salary, you're an NFL player, very little pressure (unlike what the placekicker faces, with the game on the line sometimes), and people don't really expect much out of you. Plus, you can play for 20+ years potentially.

 

Just curious: What'd you come up with for an answer?

 

3rd strong QB in the NFL. Odds are you were a fairly good college player, you make a lot of money, you never have to play and you have a great conversation starter with women or men if that's your preference.