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Retirement, It's Gotta Happen
 Forget What You Thought You Knew, Here's The Real Story
 

During the 2071 off-season, LB Leighton Canham announced that he would be returning to play an unheard of 15th season. All the GMs were scrambling through their data to see if they had ever seen a linebacker play that many seasons. It was looking like our long-held doctrine of when players retire was being turned on it's head. So the league commissioned crack FBPRO investigator Todd Ricotta (also known as the USAFL PPP creator) to dive into the massive USAFL roster archive and get some real hard evidence for this mysterious retirement factor.

What he found will astound you ... Turns out we already had 23 LBs play a 15th season. Where were we? He also uncovered that there were several instances where players played beyond their critical ages, despite not being in a key starting role.

So here comes the data ... time to alter your formulas again ...
 

Revised Aging Matrix
 

POSITION SLOT MAX YR COMMENT
QB A1 15  
  INACTIVE 8 5 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 7 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
RB A1 13  
  INACTIVE 12 6 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
WR/TE A1 12  
  INACTIVE 10 8 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 9 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
OL AI 14  
  INACTIVE 12 9 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
K A1 15  
  INACTIVE * PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO RETIRE IF LESS THAN 7.
P A1 11  
  INACTIVE * PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED TO RETIRE IF LESS THAN 7.
DL A1 13  
  INACTIVE 10 10 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 9 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
LB A1 14  
  INACTIVE 12 4 PLAYERS AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 11 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.
DB A1 12  
  INACTIVE 11 1 PLAYER AT THIS AGE AND IN THIS SLOT, NONE HAVE RETURNED FOR ANOTHER SEASON. AT LEAST 1 PLAYER AT AGE 10 IN AN INACTIVE SLOT DID RETURN THE FOLLOWING SEASON.

New Aging Chart
ALL DATA FROM 2001-2071 (MODERN ERA OF USAFL)

POSITION YR PLAYERS COMMENT
QB 11 158 32.9% OF THE NUMBER OF QBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  12 109
  13 88
  14 70
  15 52
TOTAL 477
RB 9 438 23.1% OF THE NUMBER OF RBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  10 317
  11 221
  12 160
  13 101
TOTAL 1,237
WR/TE 8 922 12.6% OF THE NUMBER OF WR/TEs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  9 489
  10 335
  11 203
  12 116
TOTAL 2,065
OL 10 810 24.8% OF THE NUMBER OF OLs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  11 518
  12 387
  13 298
  14 201
TOTAL 2,214
K 11 76 82.9% OF THE NUMBER OF Ks IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  12 68
  13 65
  14 62
  15 63
TOTAL 334
P 7 107 90.7% OF THE NUMBER OF Ps IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  8 103
  9 101
  10 99
  11 97
TOTAL 507
DL 9 637 27.9% OF THE NUMBER OF DLs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  10 420
  11 309
  12 236
  13 178
TOTAL 1,780
LB 10 634 3.6% OF THE NUMBER OF LBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  11 257
  12 124
  13 62
  14 23
TOTAL 1,100
DB 8 1,054 12.5% OF THE NUMBER OF DBs IN THE LEAGUE 5 YEARS AND YOUNGER PLAYED THROUGH THEIR MAXIMUM AGE.
  9 617
  10 404
  11 242
  12 132
TOTAL 2,449

Many thanks to Green Bay General Manager, Todd Ricotta, for researching our roster archive for this article.