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Football is a brutal sport that can take a tremendous toll on athletes who can spend the rest of their lives dealing with the repercussions of playing it. Most people subsequently aren’t itching to step onto the gridiron after celebrating their 60th birthday, but that’s the case with one man who’s angling to become the oldest college football player of all time after linking up with a DIII program in Maryland.
As things currently stand, there have been 61 NFL players who’ve competed in at least one game after turning 40, and George Blanda holds the record for the oldest one of all time after suiting up for the Raiders at the age of 48 in 1975.
Most of the members of that club were either kickers, punters, or quarterbacks and were able to join it due to the relatively low amount of wear-and-tear they dealt with compared to players who are subjecting themselves to collisions with large, muscular men on a much more frequent basis.
The nature of college football means the list of people who’ve competed in that realm is going to be significantly smaller, but to my knowledge, there have been seven guys 40 years or older who’ve played at least one snap at some level.
However, that number could grow to eight next season courtesy of one man who’s angling to become the oldest college footbal player to ever do it.
A cancer survivor is trying to become the oldest player in college football history at a school in Maryland at the age of 61
In 2016, Joe Thomas Sr. became the oldest player to ever take a snap in a Division I game when he rushed for three yards for South Carolina State during an FCS showdown with Savannah State.
A Vietnam veteran named Alan Moore currently holds the record for the oldest player to appear in any type of college football game, as he was 61 years old when he successfully kicked an extra point for Alabama’s Faulkner University (an NAIA program) in 2011.
According to WBAL, that record could be broken in the fall if everything goes to plan for Tom Green, who is currently practicing with the Division III football team at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland in the hopes of taking the field when they kick off the 2026 season.
McDaniel College Athletics
The 60-year-old father of five, who never went to college and survived a harrowing battle with kidney cancer in the 2010s, enrolled at the school last year in pursuit of a political science degree, and he’s balancing his studies and his training with his job as the owner of a wood pallet company.
He told the outlet he played semi-pro football in the past and decided to make it his goal to beat Moore’s aforementioned record next season, as he’ll be turning 61 in June. He’ll also be attempting to do so as a defensive end, which makes his quest particularly ambitious.
Green has been chronicling his journey on Instagram since setting his sights on this particular goal and has already mastered the art of the Gym Video.
Good for him.