It’s not just Bob Sanders. Safeties get hurt more than other players.
Well, look at that. Despite my earlier criticism of King, safety does check in as more injury prone than other defensive positions, in a virtual dead heat with inside linebackers (and my data set does not include any of the three safeties he cited). Just over half of the star young safeties were effectively done or retired before they reached age 30. Compare that to the other secondary position, where 25% of the cornerbacks were done before age 30. The other thing that stands out to me is the size of the difference between playing outside linebacker versus inside linebacker on your life expectancy. I am sure there might be some agents and players interested in seeing how much a switch from the outside to inside will cost them in terms of future career length, as the young star outside linebackers played 2 seasons more on average, and played in almost a half-season’s more games from age 26 to age 29. In fact, the outside linebacker who played in the fewest games after turning 26 was Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, and his demise wasn’t because of on-field injuries.
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