The Toughest Position in Sports? (2024)

I was watching the Eagles-Giants football game the other day and it struck me how incredibly difficult the quarterback’s job is. There are only 32 NFL starting quarterbacks in the world, giving you a sense of the rarefied position they hold.

Here are some of the challenges associated with the position:

• The quarterback has to have the playbook memorized.According to Sam Farmer, a reporter for the L.A. Times, Jon Gruden had a playbook thicker than the Los Angeles Yellow Pages. Gruden said that while there are hundreds of plays in a typical playbook, most teams select between 75 and 100 pass plays for a game, and 15-20 running plays when assembling a game plan for a given week.
• It seems as if the quarterback is responsible for not only knowing what he has to do on each of those plays, but what every offensive player needs to be doing on those plays.
• The quarterback has to be able to read defenses and make split-second decisions based on those reads. This requires hours and hours of watching and studying film.
• He has to have the skills to be able to throw the ball in a variety of situations and positions.
• He has to be able to withstand the pressure of several large, strong, and athletic men charging at him with the intent of bringing him to the ground.
• The quarterback has to gain the respect of his teammates so that he can be the leader of the team.
• He has to be willing to withstand the scrutiny he will undoubtedly receive from fans and reporters after each of his games.
• It also seems to help if the quarterback is good looking.

So then I started thinking if being a quarterback was THE toughest position in sports.

I posed the question to my research assistant, Google, and lo and behold I came across an article that addressed this very issue, but not in a scientific sort of way.

WatchMojo.com has a countdown of its picks for the Top 10 Hardest Positions in Sports. For this list, they focused on the positions from a variety of sports that are toughest to play from both a physical and technical standpoint.

• 10: Center (Basketball)
• 9: Wicket-Keeper (Cricket)
• 8: Catcher (Baseball)
• 7: All Positions (Water Polo)
• 6: Goalie (Lacrosse)
• 5: Scrum-Half (Rugby)
• 4: Pitcher (Baseball)
• 3: Quarterback (American Football)
• 2: Goalie (Hockey)
• 1: Goalkeeper (Football)

It’s a great list; it covers a wide range of sports and certainly has an international flair to it. But I still think the quarterback is the toughest position.

There’s no doubt that being a goalie is a tough job, as evidenced by three different goalie positions making the top 10 list. It’s a pressure-packed job that certainly requires lightning-quick reflexes and knowledge of angles and the other team’s tendencies. And each shot on goal can be the difference between winning and losing. But I think it pales in comparison to the number of decisions that a quarterback is faced with and the amount of prep time that is required of such a player.

Here’s another countdown, from Odyssey, which seems to be more focused on U.S. sports:

• 5: Point Guard (Basketball)
• 4: Linebacker (American Football)
• 3: Catcher (Baseball)
• 2: Goalkeeper (Hockey and soccer)
• 1: Quarterback (football)

There are many other outlets out there offering their opinion as to the most difficult position in sports, but for the most part, they boil down to a discussion of quarterbacks vs. goalies/goalkeepers.

I’ll finish with this opening paragraph from a 2015 USA Today article that claimed being a good quarterback is the hardest job in the world, not just in sports. If you’ve got a couple of minutes, it makes for an interesting read.

By the way, if you’d like to see the top 10 list from above set to video of the different sports with a voice-over narration which offers a bit more detail about each position, here you go:

//services.brid.tv/player/build/brid.min.js

$bp(“myDiv”, {“id”:”18480″,”width”:”1277″,”height”:”718″,”video”:{ “src”: “https://d1w0hpjgs8j5kt.cloudfront.net/863cf9c90eae22a213fc7de879a84eb9.mp4”, “name”: “Top 10 Hardest Positions in Sports”, “image”: “/uploads/thumbs720/Sp-Top10-Hardest-Positions-In-Sports-720p30.jpg”},”autoplay”:0,”shared”:true});

*image from Canada Olympics page

PublishedDecember 31, 2019