Wikipedia:WikiProject National Football League/Player pages format

This is a WikiProject advice page on style. It contains the advice of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

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This subpage details recommended article format and structure for NFL player pages. It generally reflects project consensus, which is subject to change.

For current players, the lead should typically include:

• First paragraph:
  1. Nationality^[1]
  2. Sport (American football)
  3. Position
  4. Current team (do not include "is a free agent")^[2]
  5. League
  6. College team
  7. Draft round/pick/year
  8. Former teams
• Second, third, etc. paragraphs:
  1. Notable accolades (League MVPs, Super Bowl wins, etc.)
  2. Pertinent notable trivia

Fictional example:

Robert Charles Smith (born January 18, 1982) is an American professional football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). Smith played college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils and was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 2004 NFL draft. He has also played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins, and Tennessee Titans.

Smith is a two-time Super Bowl champion, winning Super Bowl XLIII with the Steelers and Super Bowl XLV with the Packers, and was named Most Valuable Player of both games. He has been invited to ten Pro Bowls and is an eight-time first-team All-Pro selection. He was voted NFL Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press in 2007 and by Sporting News in 2009. Sports Illustrated named Smith its Sportsman of the Year in 2010. At Arizona State he was a consensus All-American in 2003, and he finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting.

Four weeks before the start of the 2006 NFL season, Smith underwent limb reattachment surgery after he lost his left arm in an automobile accident. He did not miss any playing time, and his quick recovery led sportswriter Wile E. Coyote of Acme Illustrated to christen him "Bionic Bob."^[1] Outside of football, Smith operates the Bionic Burgers restaurant chain. He is the son of six-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Archibald Smith.

First of all, everything in the highlights section of the infobox should be cited somewhere in the body of the article. The infobox is not exempt from WP:CITE, WP:PROVEIT, WP:SOURCES, etc.

Awards and highlights should be listed in the following order:^[3]

1. Pro championships
2. Pro championship MVPs
3. League MVPs
4. Other major individual awards (Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the Year, etc.)
5. First-team All-Pros
6. Second-team All-Pros
7. Pro Bowls
8. Season statistical leaders (NFL passing yards leader, etc.)
9. Pro career honors (retired number, etc.)
10. College national championships
11. College awards
12. All-Americas
13. Conference honors (SEC Defensive Player of the Year, etc.)
14. All-Conferences (college only)
15. College career honors

Highlights in the same category should be in chronological order. Order of highlights occurring in the same years and in the same category is up to discretion.

• League championships (Super Bowl champion, NFL champion, AFL champion, AAFC champion, etc.)
• Super Bowl MVPs
• League MVPs from the following selectors: AP, NEA, PFWA, UPI, and the Joe. F. Carr Trophy

List as NFL Most Valuable Player (year) when selected by one of the above.^[4]

For college player of the year awards from AP, UPI, and Sporting News, list each award separately, as shown in example infobox.

• Major league-wide awards (NFL Comeback Player of the Year, NFL Offensive Player of the Year, etc.)
• AFC Player of the Year and NFC Player of the Year selections from the UPI
• Coach of the Year awards
• First- & second-team All-league selections (All-Pro, All-AFL)
• All-star games (Pro Bowl, AFL All-Star)
• Seasons leading league in any of the following major statistical categories: passing touchdowns, passing yards, passer rating, rushing touchdowns, rushing yards, receiving touchdowns, receiving yards, receptions, sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles, scoring
• NFL All-Decade Teams
• NFL 50th, NFL 75th, and NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Teams
• AP Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year
• Team rings/halls of honor/fame
• Retired jerseys (styled as "No." per MOS:POUND) Note: If a player's number was retired for contributions made when a team played under a different name, list the team's current name. See Earl Campbell for example.^[5]
• College highlights, following same criteria as above
• A separate "NFL records" section that includes major individual league records that the player currently holds.

The following is generally considered too trivial or inappropriate for the infobox of an NFL player. As a rule of thumb, if an achievement doesn't have its own article it's probably too trivial.

• Preseason watchlists, e.g. preseason All-American
• Honorable mentions
• Runner-ups
• AFC/NFC championships
  • exception: from 1966–1969 when the NFL/AFL championships were basically NFC/AFC championships, but the leagues were still separate
• AFC/NFC all-conference selections
• Pro Bowl MVPs
• Divisional championships, e.g. NFC West champion^[6]
• Conference/division season stats leaders^[7]
• Monthly/weekly awards, e.g. NFC offensive rookie of the month, FedEx Ground player of the week^[8]
• NFL Top 100 placements^[9]
• Franchise records, e.g. "Jacksonville Jaguars all-time leader in wins"^[10]
• "Jersey no longer issued". There could be several reasons a player's jersey has not been worn since his retirement
• Minor team awards, e.g. Rams rookie of the year, Jets teammate of the year
• College conference championships^[11]
• College academic awards
  • exception: William V. Campbell Trophy
• High school state championships
• High school awards, honors, and records, e.g. USA Today High School All-American^[12]
• Arbitrary milestones, especially if the player was not the first to achieve it, e.g. "third player to rush for 800 yards and 13 touchdowns in a season taking place during a leap year"
• Arbitrary records, e.g. "most seasons with 1,200+ receiving yards and 12+ touchdowns in NFL history"
• "Clubs," e.g. 20/20 Club, 50 Interceptions Club, 10,000 Rushing Yards Club
• State, high school, or university halls of fame (e.g. University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, Kansas Sports Hall of Fame)
• Do not include a section link to a highlights and awards section of the article, e.g. other awards and honors in Drew Brees' infobox. The table of contents already serves this purpose.
• Highlights/awards for other sports

  Note: If a player has had a notable career in multiple sports, consider using {{Infobox sportsperson}} or adding a separate infobox for his additional sport(s).

• Art Rooney Award, Bart Starr Award, NFLPA Alan Page Community Award^[13]

• Every possible award in the "What to include" section does not have to be included in someone's infobox. For example, first-team All-SEC is not a defining award for Cam Newton since he won the Heisman the same year. Listing out every possible college football player of the year award for Newton like this is also redundant. The lesser awards can be added to an awards and honors section in the body: Cam_Newton#Awards_and_honors.^[14] A lesser award like the Davey O'Brien Award could still be defining for someone who did not win the Heisman though (For example: Max Duggan)
• If someone played multiple positions, do not list them on separate lines in the infobox like this. Put the positions all on one line like this. If there is not enough room on one line, use nowrap tags like this. Use commas (,) instead of bullet points (•). Bullet points create more space than commas. "Halfback, wingback, defensive back" stays on one line while "Halfback • wingback • defensive back" stretches to two lines.
• "Champion" (as in Super Bowl champion) is not a proper noun, so should not be capitalized. "Championship" is typically capitalized if it is part of the name of the game, e.g. BCS National Championship.
• Hall of fame inductions do not need to be stated in the "highlights" section if they're already displayed with banners, e.g. Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Wire services should not be italicized. Typically only magazines and newspapers are.

Typical wire services (not italicized): Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Pro Football Writers Association

Typical magazines, newspapers, etc. (italicized): USA Today, Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Pro Football Weekly

• When listing All-American and All-Pro selections, there is no need to list the selector. If a player is selected to both the first and second team, whether by the same or different selectors, the player is listed as a first-team selection. List it as "First-team All-XXXX (19XX)".^[15]
  Note: first-team All-Pro selections listed at the top of player bios on Pro-Football-Reference can be misleading. The top only lists AP selections, as explained here, and disregards all other selections. Scroll to the bottom of a player's bio to see all selections.
• For additional information, see Template:Infobox_gridiron_football_biography#Instructions.

• An article for an NFL player should generally be outlined as follows:
  1. Early life
  2. College career
  3. Professional career
  4. Career statistics
     1. NFL
     2. College
  5. Career highlights (if applicable; for NFL and college)
     1. Awards and honors
     2. Records
  6. Personal life

• In most instances, and especially in prose, acronyms of football terms should be spelled out. E.g., do not shorten touchdown as TD, interception as INT, halfback as HB, quarterback as QB, etc. There is no reason to abbreviate these terms in the body (text) of the article. Spell out single-digit numbers (0–9) per MOS:SPELL09.

Everything in an article of a living person must be cited to reliable sources. The most reputable sources one can reasonably expect to find for football players are the major U.S. newspapers: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, etc. The most commonly used reliable sources for current players include ESPN, NFL.com, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and CBS Sports. Statistical reference sites are frequently used to track player stats, the most reputable of which include ESPN, NFL.com, and Pro Football Reference.

Self-published sources such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or personal blogs should not be used in biographies of living persons unless published by that person.

Navboxes should be grouped together when there are more than three. Current roster navboxes and Template:Authority control do not count towards the total. When grouping navboxes, use the default title of {{Navboxes}}, "Links to related articles".^[16] See this for an example.