Meet T.Y. McGill - The NFL Player With 114 Entries In His Career Transactions Log
Diamond Images. Getty Images."I'm going to be a football player in the NFL".
We've all been that second grader. Answering our teacher when asked about our future vocation aspirations. Few of us ever make good on our claim, but that doesn't mean even the ones who do are going to be the star quarterback on the next dynasty or making their own version of the Gronk spike. You see, for many that even make it to the NFL, it's still a hard knock life. And that's the angle this blog series is set to explore.
Tom Brady has 13 total transaction logs listed on his pro-football reference page. He played for two decades and 250 players weren't even alive when he was drafted in 2000. And a lot of that was just deflate gate proceedings. This is… not exactly the same experience of other players. Our guy today - T.Y. McGill - is on the complete other end of that spectrum. No player in NFL history has more transaction logs than his 114.
114.
114.
Fact checkers can fact check here. But let's get a better idea of how insane this is. Here's a histogram for any player with at least 10 career transactions. I had to cut it off there because if the y-axis is too large you can't even see the single player slivers poking out at the bottom at 96, 113, and 114.
I mean, 75 career transactions is crazy. Even 50 is crazy! How on earth does someone get into the Mariana Triple Digit Trench?
T.Y. McGill's agent:
"So, You made It As An NFL Agent?" will have to be a blog series for another day. Right now we begin our journey through each and every one of T.Y. McGill's 114 career transactions. Let's fire up the ole blue screen computer and get this going. We'll start with the first nine transactions covering McGill's first two seasons.
2015/2016
Transaction #1
Holy shit it happened! After going undrafted, McGill had to think all hope was lost until he was finally signed as a UDA on May 15th. Just like that, the dream was back on. He officially made it to the NFL. No longer would he wonder if he should suck it up and bring his LinkedIn profile up to 100% complete to be more competitive for that medical marketing gig starting at 40k. Time to get drunk and leave a VM to that second grade teacher who definitely didn't believe in him.
Cirlce September 13th on the calendar baby. Game day. Week 1.
Transaction #2:
September 5th - Waived
Whoops. That's right. The whole final cuts thing they do every year. Luckily that hell only lasts a day as the Colts scooped him up on the 6th of September. He would go on to play in some games throughout the season, but didn't make enough of an impact in year two as he was de-activated early on in 2016 (#4). That must have been fun to do for Jim Irsay because he would go on to activate him two more times just to de-activate him during the rest of the season.
Oh well. That's the life in the early years of the NFL. But for players able to make it to year 3, things should improve.
2016 - Year Three (Part 1/2)
McGill starts his third season the way he started his first. Getting waived at final cuts (#10) before being scooped up the following day by another team (#11). The Cleveland Browns continued the cylce of abuse of activating/de-activating through the first couple months of the season. But remember. Tough times don't last. Tough people do. Certainly, someone in the Cleveland office figured out a coffee cup was sitting on the "de-activate/activate T.Y. McGill" button at this point in the season.
2016 - Year Three (Part 2/2)
Jesus. McGill's roster status updates was the equivalent of the CoD sign in notifications of that friend playing with the shittiest dial-up internet service on planet earth. 32 freaking transac….
Whoops. Missed a few.
35 freaking transactions!
Let's pause for a quick recap. At this point, T.Y. McGill is three seasons in as a pro in the NFL. After all that hard work and listening to 35 different voicemails from an exasperated agent, McGill has climbed his way to…checks last transaction log… the 2017 Cleveland Browns practice squad. An elite group of men working their asses off for the possibility of earning a roster spot on the 0-16 varsity squad.
Year 4 (Part 1/2)
Year 4 (2/2)
Let's try to sum up both parts of year 4 as if this is just an everyday, corporate America job like we all have. Imagine moving from Cleveland to Kansas City for some promotion. Right when your training is over you get transfered to another branch in San Diego (listed as LA) only to get de-activated a week later. After being dicked around in San Diego for a while Philly - who probably lost a bet with San Diego - agrees to take you on for a couple months before shipping you right back to San Diego to get treated like dirt just a few more times.
Given the facts presented in the transaction log I'm going on a limb and saying none of these teams offered air fare services. And since McGill easy used all of his salary in home closing costs across the country here's what his hitchhiking itinerary looks like for the 2018 season.
Years 5 - 9
Alright, let's just rip the Band-Aid and get on with this. Here's transaction 62 through 114.
My favorite log is the last one. It's not even his. It's very clearly for fellow DL Austin Bryant. But the 49ers had made so many god damn roster moves involving McGill that the administrative staff clearly assumed it was business as usual on February 14th, 2024. So in reality, McGill really only has 113 transactions. At least, for now. And that's the crazy part (well another crazy part). He's still in the league. Or was last year at least. I have no idea if he plans on playing this season or if he's already admitted himself as I would have done by Year 2 part 1.
Let's compile McGill's career stats as it stands now through 57 total game appearances.
So what do we learn from all this? Was it really worth making the NFL to have to deal with all this BS? After checking in with Spottrac to find McGill's career earnings through 2024 at $4,929,541, I'm going to go ahead and say yes. Take that second grade teacher. But let this be a little reminder that while all the media attention is on the stars, there's guys out there like T.Y. McGill struggling to keep his name above his locker. Even one that incurred just as many OFFICIAL logs if you take away the final miss-entry.
Who else had 113 total career transactions? That's a story for another blog.