Australians in American football and rugby union have been linked to potential NFL careers. The punting specialist position requires similar skills to those used in Australian Rules football. Salaries are up to five times higher and the position lends itself to longevity: Australian football players generally retire at around 30, whereas American football punters can play well into their 40s (in fact, one of the players listed below, Darren Bennett, played 11 seasons in the NFL after leaving behind an Australian rules career when he was nearing 30). Initially Australians sought out American football careers, although now NFL scouts are more often actively seeking
Steroid use in American football approximately 20 percent of the players on a football team to test on a specific day. Anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are also used throughout high school football. Steroid use at this level of play doubled from 1991 to 2003, with results of a survey showing that about 6 percent of players out of the 15,000 surveyed had admitted to using some type of anabolic steroid or performance-enhancing drug at one point in their playing time. Other data shows that only 4 percent of high schools have some form of drug testing program in place for their football teams.