The NFL isn’t for everyone

As training camps get up and running teams rosters are full of unheralded guys chasing dreams of fame and fortune on the gridiron. Many will fulfill these dreams. Others will fade into history and move onto other professions.

One feature Zoneblitz plans to pursue as we get up and running is a periodic “Where are they now” segment aimed at tracking down some former NFL players and updating readers on how they’re getting by in their post-football lives.

We didn’t anticipate starting this feature up quite yet. But we stumbled by accident while doing the day job today onto a guy who never made it to the NFL regular season, but has ultimately done quite well for himself in the aviation industry instead.

John Pincavage played running back for some mid-level teams at the University of Virginia before graduating in 1965 with a degree in . He was good enough to be drafted in 1966 in the 8th round by the NFL’s Detroit Lions and in the 18th round by the AFL’s Boston Patriots.

He chose to sign with the Lions because they were offering more money. After a few weeks in training camp with Detroit, he says the team sent him to the Atlanta Falcons to fulfill a previous obligation. His career with the Falcons was short.

“I got into a couple pre-season games,” Pincavage says with a laugh. “I got wiped out on a punt return. I decided to go back to graduate school.”

In the years since he’s done quite well for himself. He is a chartered financial analyst with years of experience on Wall Street. In 1999 he founded Pincavage & Associates, an aviation consulting firm.

According to various bios published in various documents available on the Web, he previously was executive director of equity research at Warburg Dillon Read from 1995 to 1999 and director at the Transportation Group LLC where he headed research efforts from 1989 to 1995. He’s a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and has served on numerous boards.

He has no regrets about his short stint in the NFL – nor about going back to school for an MBA, which he also earned at Virginia.

“It was one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made,” he says.