15 Careers in the Football Industry With Salaries and Job Duties

A career in the football industry may interest you if you're a fan of sports. Whether your talents are more technical or interpersonal, you can find a job relating to football. Learning about some of the best careers you can pursue without needing to be an athlete can help you find a career path you love. In this article, we explore careers in the football industry other than that of a football player and provide salary information and share common job duties for each career.

Related: 28 Careers in Sports (With Duties and Salaries)

15 careers in the football industry

If you love football, there are many careers you can pursue rather than playing the sport. Working in the industry enables you to be closer to the action without requiring the talent to be a professional player. While it's a popular field for fanatics, you may also find lucrative careers in this industry. For the most up-to-date Indeed salary information, click the links below:

1. Sports writer

National average salary: $31,931 per year

Primary duties: A sportswriter is a journalist who reports on sporting events. Sportswriters watch sporting events so that they can give a report on the competition for their audience. They may also perform research to write articles on specific athletes or teams. Often they write for print media and digital news platforms but may have their own blog. Sportswriters get to attend games with a press pass and sometimes have special access to the athletes.

2. Sports coach

National average salary: $33,693 per year

Primary duties: A sports coach is a trainer who helps athletes realize their full potential. A sports coach provides training to develop skills and techniques to play their sport. Coaches plan strategies for games and instruct their team on how to implement the strategy. Football coaches are often in charge of offensive strategies or defensive strategies. Depending on the age of the athletes, a sports coach may need to teach game rules and objectives.

3. Concessions manager

National average salary: $33,940 per year

Primary duties: A concessions manager is a food service professional who oversees concessions staff, inventory and operations. They provide hospitality and customer service training for employees in the concessions booth and prepare the concessions booth for opening. Concessions are often available during sporting events and the concession manager tries to prepare food for peak times, such as halftime. A concessions manager also counts inventory and orders new stock. This includes managing paper and food products. They also troubleshoot issues with cooking appliances or the cash register and handle guests.

4. Sports center manager

National average salary: $34,089 per year

Primary duties: A sports center manager maintains a sporting facility and its operations. They can manage stadiums, arenas, gyms and fields where sporting events occur. A sports center manager supervises staff at the center including trainers, concession workers, custodians and ushers. They may handle leasing agreements to rent the center to teams for practice. Sports center managers also develop improvement plans including remodeling designs for the sports center.

5. Sports anchor

National average salary: $36,298 per year

Primary duties: A sports anchor is a reporter who features on newscasts to talk about sports-related events. They work for television news stations and online webcasts. A sports anchor prepares news stories about sporting events and important updates about players, teams or other sport-related subjects, then presents the news on air. They may conduct interviews with athletes, coaches and fans to develop more engaging content for viewers. It's important for them to keep up-to-date with current trends and events in sports so they can report the news.

Related: Learn About Being a News Anchor

6. Referee

National average salary: $38,339 per year

Primary duties: A referee is a game official who enforces rules of play. Referees watch a game and determine if players act in accordance with the rules. They get to make the final decisions about goals, penalties and sportsmanship. A referee signals the start and end of a game. They may also check game equipment before the game starts to ensure safety and ensure the equipment adheres to regulations. To perform their job well, it's important that referees study the sports they may officiate and learn all the rules and objections relating to the sport.

7. Athletic trainer

National average salary: $42,423 per year

Primary duties: An athletic trainer is a professional who helps prepare athletes to be game-ready. They may work in rehabilitation programs to train athletes after an injury. By teaching preventative measures, they can help athletes train and play safely. They also work with athletes to teach them workouts and exercises to keep their bodies in the best shape to perform in their sport. An athletic trainer may act as a personal trainer to professional athletes and work with them throughout their careers.

Read more: Learn About Being an Athletic Trainer

8. Talent scout

National average salary: $44,629 per year

Primary duties: A talent scout is a recruiter for sports teams and finds the most talented players to play on the team. Talent scouts work for colleges, professional teams and special interests groups to build successful teams with the most talented athletes in the area. They research player statistics, travel to watch the athlete perform and extend offers to athletes to join a team. Talent scouts may network with coaches to hear about athletes who may interest professional teams.

9. Team manager

National average salary: $48,908 per year

Primary duties: A team manager oversees an entire athletic program, including trainers, coaches and athletes. They may make decisions about uniform design. They also hire staff, such as the coaches for a team. Team managers monitor the team and ensure that athletes and coaches comply with regulations. They may provide resources for athletic education and develop initiatives to enrich the athletic program. Team managers also help build local support of the sports team by planning events.

10. Human resources specialist

National average salary: $49,065 per year

Primary duties: A human resources specialist helps recruit, hire and train employees in an organization. In football, a human resources specialist hire employees for the athletic department and provide training resources for organization policies. They may manage athlete and coach employment contracts and help with administrative tasks, such as payroll. Human resources specialists also create policies for employee well-being and help implement new initiatives.

11. Dietitian

National average salary: $50,399 per year

Primary duties: A dietitian is a health professional who provides education about nutrition and healthy eating habits. Dietitians work with sports teams to develop meal plans for athletes to help keep them healthy. They help create well-balanced diets and teach athletes about what to eat to receive certain benefits, such as having more energy. Dietitians can also work in food services to design menus.

Read more: Learn About Being a Dietitian

12. Broadcaster

National average salary: $56,646 per year

Primary duties: A broadcaster is a personality for on-air shows for radio or television. Broadcasters research, write and present news stories. A sports broadcaster may do live reports on a game for a radio audience. They also do announcements and narrations for television during sporting events. They also may read stories and perform programming for sports-related content. In the football industry, they may report on player highlights and statistics and do play-by-play of a game.

13. Broadcast engineer

National average salary: $74,318 per year

Primary duties: A broadcast engineer is a technology professional who maintains equipment and uses a control board to transmit broadcasts. They set up equipment for broadcasts and address any issues that occur with the hardware or software. They also update software. Another job responsibility they have is to operate equipment such as microphones and help on-air personalities use them. Broadcast engineers can work in television or radio.

14. Physical therapist

National average salary: $82,261 per year

Primary duties: A physical therapist is a health care professional who helps people with rehabilitation after injury. They evaluate their patients and the injury and develop a treatment plan to help the patient regain mobility and strength. Physical therapists teach patients healing activities and provide education on preventive care. In the football industry, a physical therapist may work exclusively with a team to address injuries that occur during a game. They also teach athletes exercises to prevent injuries such as sprains.

Read more: Learn About Being a Physical Therapist

15. Statistician

National average salary: $97,738 per year

Primary duties: A statistician is a mathematics professional who analyzes data. They determine what data sets they require to answer a specific question and find and interpret this data. Statisticians may create surveys and opinion polls to collect data. In football, a statistician studies the performance of athletes and helps determine their individual statistics, such as total yards per game or average successful passes. They can use statistics to make predictions about sporting events and design models to forecast wins and the success of an athlete's career.