Top 5 NFL Players Who Are Also Avid Poker Players

Of the many card games around, poker is the one closest to a traditional sport. It has all the elements of excitement and tension that a sports fan needs, while strategy and skill are required to get to the top.

Maybe that’s why so many athletes transition to poker, either during or after their main careers. The need to perform under pressure, to assess opponents and carve a path to success is essential in both disciplines.

It’s certainly true of the NFL where a significant number of players have made a strong switch to poker at some point. Here are a few of the best examples.

Tom Brady

In football, Tom Brady is regarded by many as the best player of all time. A seven-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Super Bowl MVP, his record in terms of winning the top awards in the game is second to none.

His poker career hasn’t been quite as successful, but he remains a fierce competitor at the table. Having transitioned from online poker, Brady has taken part in several celebrity tournaments where he’s returned some mixed results.

Having finally retired from the gridiron, he plays poker for fun these days, but Tom Brady will always carry that athlete’s mentality.

Calais Campbell

An active member of the Miami Dolphins in 2024, defensive tackle Calais Campbell, is one of the current NFL players looking to carve out a poker career. He made a notable statement early on by coming third in a prestigious event at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas in 2013.

Campbell had sent out a message that he was more than just a recreational player, and he followed that early success with more big prize wins. In 2016, he competed in the World Series of Poker, where he outlasted former main event champion Ryan Reiss.

Unlike some other players, Calais Campbell didn’t let his card playing activities get in the way of his football career. In 2017, while on the books of the Jacksonville Jaguars, he won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.

To date, Campbell’s earnings from poker are relatively modest, but he’ll have more time to focus on the game when his lengthy football career comes to a close.

Emmitt Smith

A running back who spent fourteen years in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals, Emmitt Smith retired as the man with the league’s most rushing yards. He also won three Super Bowl titles and was the MVP in the 1994 game.

An exceptional football talent, Smith is another man who has tried his luck atop the tables. As of 2024, his earnings in poker have remained modest, although he remains active on the circuit. Any winnings from online poker play may not be open to public scrutiny, but it could be argued that Emmitt Smith is more of a recreational player than a serious professional.

Eric Stocz

Another former NFL star who switched to the poker tables, Eric Stocz has been more successful than most who followed this route. As a football player, he had a brief and fairly uneventful career, playing for four franchises between 1996 and 2000.

While spending time on the fringes of each roster, Stocz had plenty of time to plan for life beyond the NFL. He began playing poker online and quickly graduated to the bigger offline tournaments. In 2008, he claimed the first big win of his career, in a live event.

The former linebacker began to appear in World Series of Poker competitions and his biggest win produced a cash pot of $30,000 in 2011. Since he fully retired from football, Eric Stocz has risen up the poker rankings and now has career earnings in excess of $550,000.

Richard Seymour

While many NFL stars play poker for fun, former defensive end Richard Seymour takes the game deadly seriously. For a time, he was a teammate of Tom Brady’s at the New England Patriots, and he won three Super Bowl titles in his football career.

Seymour retired in 2012 after three years at the Oakland Raiders, by which time he’d already established himself as a dangerous poker opponent. In 2023, he came 284th out of 10,000 entrants at the World Series of Poker. A significant cash prize from that tournament means that his poker earnings are now approaching the $800,000 mark.

NFL players who switch to the poker tables take different approaches to the game. Some are in it just for fun, and to maintain the skills and sense of competition that they enjoyed on the football field.

Others take things more seriously to the extent that poker becomes a second career. Whichever approach they take, there are transferable skills and strategies that help to turn many NFL players into competitive poker talents.

The post Top 5 NFL Players Who Are Also Avid Poker Players appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/12/05/street-talk/poker-players-in-the-nfl/