A sad part of playing athletics, especially football, is the series of "hidden injuries" that occur. So many athletes get hurt, recover, play, retire then at 50 years old those problems surface.
Even Joe Montana has had "post NFL injury woes."
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/feb/06/joe-montana-nfl-injury-problems
I asked a co-worker who had played five years in pro football. He suffers. I asked him: "Was it worth it?"
He answered: "Some days it was; some days it wasn't."