Having gone to Alabama, and known several football players, some of whom I was good friends with (I was not good enough as an athlete to play on that kind of team!), I can tell you that EVERY ONE OF THEM knows the physical price they may pay. Very few of them expect to play pro ball. They do it for the experience, the pride, the sense of achievement. I know a guy who blew his knee out and said flat out “I will have a gimp leg the rest of my life.” I also know that almost none of the ones who pay a physical price would do anything differently.
There is a price for anything that is worth anything. They go into it eyes wide open, and are proud of their achievements, and are not squawking about not making any money. That is, most of them are not like whiney complainers who b**ch about the money in athletics.
I admire them. They are phenomenal athletes and watching people at the apex of whatever field they work in is a thing of wonder.
Perhaps you should talk to those former athletes again when they are thirty five or forty. It would be interesting to do a study and see how their lives turned out compared to their non athlete fellow students. It seems ridiculous that huge amounts of money is being made by others based on the performance and sacrifices of these young people. You can’t believe that an 17 yo recruit understands the full picture. The coach that recruits and supervises his career certainly does.