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What Does a Sports Speech
Therapist Do?
In 2007 Darren Sproles of the San Di-
ego Chargers made football history by
returning a kickoff and a punt for his
first two National Football League (NFL)
touchdowns in the same game. While
Sproles’s work on the field made him
famous among football fans, he was
honored by sports speech therapists—
and those with speech impediments—
when he helped celebrate National
Stuttering Awareness Week in 2008.
Sproles is one of many famous athletes
who stutter. Other stutterers include
basketball greats Bill Walton, Kenyon
Martin, Bob Love, and professional
golfer Ken Venturi.
Sproles began stuttering in first
grade, but his speech impediment was
not a real problem until he became a
star football player at Kansas State
University. “I had to talk to the media
a lot, and once they put a camera in
my face that’s when it got bad,”
38
he
says. While in college Sproles worked
on his stuttering problem with speech-
language pathologists (SLPs), medical
professionals also known as speech
therapists. He overcame his stuttering
A Few Facts
Median Salary
$74,680 a year in 2016
Minimum
Educational
Requirements
Master’s degree
Personal Qualities
Analytical and
communication skills,
critical thinking,
attention to detail,
good listening skills,
compassion
Working
Conditions
Full-time work indoors in
clinical settings
Number of Jobs
135,400 for all speech
therapists in 2014
Job Outlook
21 percent growth
before 2024 for all
speech therapists
Sports Speech
Therapist
