Sport Research Paper

FOOTBALL IS FAMILY: BROTHERS IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

1
The Factors that Contribute to Multiple Brothers Playing in the NFL
Meghan Klein
Southern Methodist University


2
The Factors That Contribute to Multiple Brothers Playing in the NFL
Originally named the American Professional Football Association, the National Football
League was created 1920 (Chronology of Professional Football, 2016). Trying to solve the
problems associated with a disorganized non-league of professional football teams, the inaugural
league started out with just 10 teams from only 4 different states. It aimed to help prevent
players from switching teams for higher salaries, and address the problems with current college
football players playing in the league.
The name was changed to the National Football league in 1922 (Chronology, 2016), and
now in 2017, includes 32 teams. Each team has 53-man rosters and 5-player practice squads,
meaning there are approximately 1,856 NFL active players in the NFL each year.
According to an NCAA study in 2016, of the over 1 million high school football players,
only 6.7% of them made it to play at the NCAA level. The study also found that there were
16,175 NCAA football players eligible to go on to play professional football from Division I, II,
and III schools. With only 256 of them drafted, only 1.9% of college football players will make it
to a professional league, and only 1.6% of them will make it to the NFL. With this small chance
of advancing in the sport, how do certain families produce multiple professional football players
within the same family?
As of the 2014-2015 season, 373 sets of brothers have played professional football in
some capacity (Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2015) which includes the AAFC, AFL and NFL. In
2016, the NFL had an addition of two families with four NFL playing brothers. The Fullers and
Gronkowskis were the second and third families to have four brothers play in the NFL sine the
AFL-NFL merger in 1966. (David Smith, 2016) The other family of four was the Browner
family who had 4 brothers play in the league during the 1970s and 80s.


3
Chris and Kyle Long are two brothers currently playing in the NFL together. They both
said it was the other that made them want to play the sport, not their former NFL father, Howie.
Younger brother Kyle said he did not know he wanted to play football until he saw his older
brother Chris playing in the league. He said he “didn’t think he was tough enough until he saw
his brother getting after it.” (Football and Family). Often times we see studies concerning one
elite athlete and their non-elite sibling but multiple elite athletes in a family is not as often
addressed and certainly not more than 2 siblings.
The study will examine specifically a few recent cases of families with 3 or more
brothers in the NFL; the Gronkowskis, Watts, and Fullers. Specifically Chris, Dan, Rob, and
Glenn Gronkowski, JJ, Derek, and TJ Watt, and Vincent, Kendall, Kyle and Corey Fuller.
So far, there is a lack of study that investigated the likelihood that multiple brothers will
make it to the NFL and the factors that contribute to that likelihood. Why now are we seeing
more men compete at a higher level in the same sport as their brothers? What are parents doing
to increase this likelihood and cultivate a healthy competition rather than jealousy or resentment
between brothers. Most of the research done on this topic is surrounding birth order effects on
success and the psychological effects of playing the same sport as a sibling. Cote (1999) found
that serious commitment or talent in one sibling can lead to uneven distribution of familial
resources which can cause resentment from the other siblings. This resentment can lead to de-
identification in which the other sibling wants to create a unique identify and wants nothing to do
with the sport their sibling plays (Blazo, 2015). This is obviously not the case for families with
multiple brothers in the league so what was different about their interactions. This study will
look more into the idea that siblings can garner a healthy competition that will lead to greater
success down the line. Davis 2008 found that siblings can be motivated by each other just by


4
being around them and seeing how they are training. Davis’ study was applied mostly to adults
who had already reached a high level of success in their sport so I want to apply it to growing up.
Are children able to interact playing the same sport the same way, allowing them to put in more
effort during competition?
The study at hand attempts to explain why certain families are able to have success in the
National Football League and what factors lead to multiple brothers playing in the NFL. Two
research questions will guide this study: RQ1, How does parent involvement and upbringing
factor into multiple brothers making it to the NFL? RQ2, What role does birth order and family
makeup play in the likelihood of success?
The study will help parents raise their children in a way to optimize their success at a
higher level. It will help understand the impact of treatment, training and socialization of siblings
within sports on their future success.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Most studies surrounding this topic looks at elite athletes and their non-athlete siblings
and looks to explain why that child was successful out of the rest. Here the study will examine
the qualities that made multiple children successful in the same sport. Many of the studies also
focus on the parent-child relationship rather than the family unit and the relationship as a whole.
Success in Professional Sport
Some of the factors that affect an athlete’s success and ability to reach a professional
level are the way they are raised, the food that they eat, the way that they train, their inspiration,
their personal dedication/mentality, and their coaches. According to Cote (1999) excellence in
sport performance stems from 3 major themes, motivational, effort, and resource. Fraser and


5
Thomas (2005) discuss especially about the role of a parent or coach in the psychological and
psychical development of a child as they enter in sports.
In the National Hockey League, (NHL) birth months play a large factor in the success of
hockey players. (Adonna, 2010). The study found that two times more professional hockey
players were born in the first quarter of the calendar year (January through March) than those
born in the final quarter of the year (October-December). They found this was because youth
travel leagues age cutoff is December 31st
so the kids born earlier in the year were older and
typically bigger than the other kids in their league.
According to McDonald, (2009) birth months don’t make a big impact on football
players’ success football programs are usually in schools, which have a late August/early
September age by enrollment cut-off date. This study did find that birthplace played a role in
football players success in the NFL. They found that small cities seemed to develop and produce
more athletes in American football. Players born in cities with populations of less than 500,000
were “significantly overrepresented in the NFL” especially in comparison to their colleagues that
were born in 500,000-plus cities. (McDonald, 2009)
Family Dynamics
Whenever a family has more than one child, the dynamic becomes much trickier to
balance. As children are added, the attention and resources become harder to divvy up. Blazo
(2014) found that as more children are added to the family unit, the parents tend to have the
children do less activities because it is too much to manage.
In Lehman’s book from 1995, he found that firstborns are given greater family resources,
time and money, and have a higher expectation of success than their later born siblings. This tied


6
in with Eckstein’s study in 2000 that said that 2nd
borns tend to be more athletic but first borns
are higher achievers.
Cote (1999) found that a serious commitment of one child can result in the uneven
distribution of resources to that child which can foster resentment and bitterness from the non-
committed child. But, Cote also found that siblings learn to coordinate their interaction with the
family to achieve a common goal which can help them develop sports skills as well. Earlier born
children are known to be motivated to stay on top as the dominant sibling, and younger born
children are similarly motivated to come out of the shadow of their sibling (Davis, Meyer 2008).
They found this trend of competition lessen as the age gap between siblings widened past 3 years
and the siblings were able to get along better.
Sibling in Sports
Hopwood (2015) found that having an older sibling increased the likelihood that a child
would participate in sports for boys particularly. Weiss and Knoppers (1982) also mentioned that
brothers were highly influential for each other long past their early childhood. They said that
brothers remain figures of influence into their college years as well. This college time-period is
especially vital for developing professional football players as it is professional teams are
scouting them to decide if they will be drafted or not.
Blazo (2015) found that if siblings perceive a positive relationship they are more likely to
interact and train together which gives them more opportunities to observe and learn from one
another in sport. This bodes well for brothers who play the same sport as boys are more likely to
foster relationships by engaging in similar activities (Blazo 2015).


7
Siblings provide unique motivation and subsequent edge for athletes. With a visible and
constant competitor to compare yourself to, sibling athletes trained harder as they observed the
other working hard (Davis and Meyer, 2008) This study also found that not only were siblings
motivational, but also instructional. They could share training methods or tips with each other as
they both were familiar with the sport.
In a study done by Abel and Kruger in 2007, they studied brothers in Major League
Baseball and found that in non-pitching positions, older brothers had generally more successful
careers than their younger brothers.
Father and Son in NFL:
Often the background of an athlete is observed when determining the factors that lead to
their success. The relationship between father and son, both genetically and emotionally can be
very important in NFL success. Fathers are more likely to be directly involved in their sons’
sport participation as opposed to their daughters’. (Coakley, 2006)
According to Coakley (2006), when a child is particularly gifted athletically, the father is
typically the one who makes the decisions about training and competition. The athletic ability
and success of a father can also play a large role in the subsequent success and upbringing of the
son. According to the National Football League Hall of Fame, there are 224 documented sets of
father and son duos that played in the NFL. (2016). Of the 224 father-son sets, only 14 of those
included more than one son that played in the NFL.
The Australian Football League recognizes the potential for fathers to pass on their
athletic ability to their sons and has a unique Father-Son. This rule allows sons of former players


8
to be selected by their father’s club prior to the draft and it was created in 1949 to “allow family
traditions to continue” (Tuck, 2015).
Chapter 3: Methods
The study will be carrying out a qualitative study to explore how multiple brothers from
the same family are able to achieve success at the professional level in American football. A case
study will be conducted with three families who have 3 or more sons that were or will be drafted
to play in the National Football League. To accomplish this study’s purpose, interviews will be
conducted with the players and their parents, as well as coaches and trainers. Secondary sources
of evidence will also be considered such as photographs, video tapes, and documents such as
menus or training and practice regimes. This study will delve into what about their upbringing,
environment, diet or training makes them unique in the amount of success that they have had.
The three families of brothers that I will be studying will be Chris Gronkowski, Dan
Gronkowski, Rob Gronkowski, and Glenn Gronkowski, JJ Watt, Derek Watt, and TJ Watt, and
Vincent Fuller, Kendall Fuller, Kyle Fuller and Corey Fuller. I have chosen to look at these 3
families as they all include multiple sons who played in the NFL but they also encompass
different career spans as well. The Gronkwoskis and Fullers were the second and third family
since the AFL-NFL merger to have four brothers in the NFL. The first family was the Browners
whose 4 brothers played in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Gronkowskis are a family of 5 sons, 4 of which played or play in the National
Football League. The brothers (in order from age)—Gordie Jr., Dan, Chris, Rob, and Glenn—
grew up in upstate New York in the 1980s and 90s. They come from an athletic background as


9
their father was a linebacker at Syracuse University, while their grandfather was a member of the
U.S. Olympic cycling team in 1924. Both Rob and Chris played college football at University of
Arizona, while Glenn played at Kansas State and Dan played at Maryland.
Rob and Dan are tight ends, while Glenn and Chris play fullback. The eldest brother,
Gordie Jr., played Division I baseball and was drafted to the Anaheim Angels before playing in
the minor leagues for six years. The two youngest brothers, Rob and Glenn, are the only
Gronkowskis still playing in the NFL and play for the New England Patriots. Rob has scored 68
touchdowns in his 7 seasons playing in the NFL. Both Chris and Dan have retired but formerly
played with the Lions and Cowboys. Dan was drafted in 2009 and played until 2013 while Chris
went undrafted in 2010 but signed with the Cowboys one day after and played until 2013 as well.
The Watt family has 3 sons, JJ, Derek, and TJ. JJ and Derek currently play in the NFL
while the youngest, TJ, has declared for the 2017 NFL draft. The Watts were born in Waukesha,
Wisconsin and all three of them attended the University of Wisconsin, around 60 miles away
from home. JJ Watt is a defensive end for the Houston Texans and Derek plays fullback for the
San Diego Chargers. TJ has declared for the draft as a fullback and is rated 45th
out of 500 draft-
rated players.
The Fuller family has 4 sons, all who played in the NFL, 3 of which are still current
players. The Fullers grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and went on to play college football
at Virginia Tech. Vincent Fuller played in the NFL from 2005 to 2011 for the Titans, Patriots
and Lions. His three brothers, Kendall, Kyle, and Corey play for the Redskins, Bears, and Lions
respectively.
The interview focuses on the players themselves, as well as parents, siblings, coaches,
trainers and former teachers.


10
Examples of the some of the questions I may ask are:
1. Why did you decide to pursue football?
2. What was a typical diet for you as a child?
3. How did your parents impact your interests?
4. Describe your athletic experiences growing up
5. When did you train with your brothers and why?
6. How did your brothers playing football impact your game?
I will be using content analysis to look at the results that I find during this case study. I will be
analyzing the interviews that I have conducted and picking out common trends and patterns that
reveal themselves as I look over the families’ answers.
Chapter 4: Conclusion
Both deductive and inductive approaches were used to analyse the collected data and
secondary source data. Deductively, the technique of a pattern match will be used, where the
answers to each interview question will be compared and contrasted against each interviewee.
For this purpose, the details of each respondent’s data (for each question) treated individually,
followed by the matching and comparing of the replies of each interviewee on each question
with each other (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2013). Upon completion of the cross comparison,
conclusions will be drawn on each question. Inductively, emergent themes will be identified
from data that surfaced during follow-up questions, open-ended questions, transitioning from
topic to topic, and elaborations of previous answers. These data will be compiled during the data
reduction stage, then analysed and re-analyzed inductively (Creswell, 2014) by clustering similar
topics and organising the topics into three parts: as major topic, unique topic, and leftovers.


11
Chapter 5: Sources
1. Abel, Ernest L. "Performance Of Older Versus Younger Brothers: Data From Major
League Baseball." Perceptual and Motor Skills 105.7 (2007): 1117.
2. Addona, Vittorio, and Philip A Yates. "A Closer Look At The Relative Age Effect In The
National Hockey League". Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports 6.4 (2010):
3. Blazo, Jordan A., and Alan L. Smith. "A Systematic Review of Siblings and Physical
Activity Experiences." International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology (2017): 1-
38.
4. Blazo, Jordan A. “Do Siblings Matter in physical Activity? A systematic review and
examination of perceived competence in youth sport” Michigan State University
Dissertation. 2015.
5. Blazo, Jordan A., Daniel R. Czech, Sarah Carson, and Windy Dees. "A Qualitative
Investigation of the Sibling Sport Achievement Experience." The Sport Psychologist 28.1
(2014): 36-47.
6. “Brothers Who Played Pro Football” Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site
7. Coakley, Jay. "The Good Father: Parental Expectations And Youth Sports". Leisure
Studies 25.2 (2006)
8. "Chronology of Professional Football." Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site. 2016.
9. Côté, Jean. "The Influence of The Family In The Development Of Talent In Sport". The
Sport Psychologist 13.4 (1999)
10. David Smith, Michael. "Washington Drafts Kendall Fuller, Fourth Fuller Brother in
The NFL." ProFootballTalk. April 2016.
11. Davis, Nickolas W., and Barbara B. Meyer. "When Sibling Becomes Competitor: A
Qualitative Investigation of Same-Sex Sibling Competition in Elite Sport." Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology 20.2 (2008): 220-35.
12. "Estimated Probability of Competing in Professional Athletics." NCAA.org - The Official
Site of the NCAA. 02 May 2016.
13. “Fathers and Sons Who have Played Pro Football” NFL Hall of Fame. April, 2016.
14. “Football: NCAA” NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. 25 April 2016
15. Fraser-Thomas, Jessica L., Jean C, and Janice Deakin. "Youth Sport Programs: An
Avenue to Foster Positive Youth Development." Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy
10.1 (2005): 19-40.
16. Hopwood, M. J., D. Farrow, C. MacMahon, and J. Baker. "Sibling Dynamics and Sport
Expertise." Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. N.p., 31 Jan. 2015.
17. Jack, H. W. "Brothers in Rugby Football: More Evidence That Brothers Are Selected to
Play in the Same or Similar Positions on Football Teams." Journal of Heredity. Oxford
University Press, 01 Apr. 1922.
18. Leman, Kevin. The Birth Order Book. 1st ed. 1995.
19. "Long Brothers on Football and Family." New England Patriots, 19 Aug. 2016.
20. Macdonald, D. J., Cheung, M., Côté, J. and Abernethy, B. "Place But Not Date Of Birth
Influences The Development And Emergence Of Athletic Talent In American Football".
Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 21.1 (2009): 80-90.


12
21. Nelson, Kendra, and Leisha Strachan. "Friend, Foe, or Both? A Retrospective
Exploration of Sibling Relationships in Elite Youth Sport." International Journal of
Sports Science & Coaching (2017): 174795411769492.
22. "Redskins Rookie Kendall Fuller Learned from His Brothers in the NFL." CSN Mid-
Atlantic. N.p., 30 Apr. 2016.
23. "There’s Something Special about Facing Your Sibling, or Siblings, in the NFL." Los
Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times.
24. Tuck, Geoffrey N. "From Father To Son: A Review And Demographic Analysis Of The
Australian Football League's Father–Son Rule". Sport Management Review. March 19,
2015
25. White, Sally A. et al. "Perceived Parental Beliefs About The Causes Of Success In Sport:
Relationship To Athletes' Achievement Goals And Personal Beliefs". Scandinavian
Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports 14.1 (2004)
26.

Sport Research Paper

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (6)

Similar to Sport Research Paper

Similar to Sport Research Paper (15)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Sport Research Paper