Motivation is provided by breathtaking financial rewards that await those who make the big time. Not many with the potential to make the NFL or NBA could afford to abandon the pursuit of such a career while any hope remained. The rewards of track and field do not match the salaries of the big three team sports, but in the marquee events the best athletes earn very well. Finally, in a country of almost 300 million, only a few thousand athletes will strike it rich. Sports best suited to our analysis rely on a few basic physical attributes.
Football is too complex.
In no other sport is division of labor more evident. A football team is a collection of specialists, with an enormously broad range of athletic ability represented among its players. The running backs combine speed with explosive power. Wide receivers are fast, agile and jump like gazelles. On the offensive line conservation of momentum rules.