Modern Family Star Once Revealed NFL Setback That Nearly Ended His Career: “I’m Done”
- - Modern Family Star Once Revealed NFL Setback That Nearly Ended His Career: “I’m Done”
Nina DerwinJanuary 4, 2026 at 12:39 AM
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Photo by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images
Long before he became a familiar face on television, Ed O’Neill was pursuing a very different dream, one that ended before it ever truly began.
America's favorite sitcom dad of Modern Family and Married... With Children fame didn't always envision himself becoming a Hollywood star. As a young adult attending Youngstown State University in Ohio, O'Neill had his sights set on a different career entirely: the NFL.
While at Youngstown, O'Neill earned a reputation as a highly regarded player. He played against the likes of Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, who was at Pensacola Naval Station at the time, and even started a brawl for hitting the football star illegally out of bounds. O'Neill was on his way to the top.
In the late 1960s, O'Neill briefly found himself on an NFL roster for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But that was where his dreams of football glory came to a screeching halt. Years later, O'Neill recalled the day coach Chuck Noll cut him from the team.
"I think I might have been dead weight," O'Neill told Rich Eisen in an interview.
"He called me in. I went into the office, and brought my playbook because I knew that I was going," O'Neill recalled. "And he couldn’t have been nicer, by the way, and he was complimentary."
At the time, O'Neill was trying to transition into a position he had never played before.
"He said, 'Look, you're a tough kid but you're trying to learn the position,'" O'Neill said. "... We didn't have outside linebacker in the college I played for. So, it was the only position I reasonably could have played, and he just didn't have time."
Noll, O'Neill noted, was navigating his own challenges as well.
“He said, 'Look, it’s my first year, too,'" O’Neill continued. "'So I can get you down with the Eagles. The Eagles are desperate. But you gotta tell me right now.'"
The offer forced a split-second decision, one that would quietly redirect O'Neill’s life.
"And I said, 'I'm done.' It was a spur of the moment decision. I had knee problems and to be honest, I was sick of football," he said. "And I said, 'No, thank you so much.'"
In the moment, it may have felt like O'Neill's career had ended, and it did, at least as far as football was concerned. But, when one door closes another one opens. O'Neill would go on to find his footing in acting, landing early stage work before becoming a household name through television roles that defined multiple generations of comedy.
Related: Jesse Tyler Ferguson Reveals the ‘Modern Family’ Star Who Always Got the Biggest Laughs
This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
