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Florida, California, Texas, Georgia and Ohio are the states where the most NFL players were born, based on rosters the Monday before the start of the 2016 season, cleveland.com research found.

(Rich Exner, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Half the players on NFL rosters are from just seven states, with Ohio being among the top producers of pro football talent.

A cleveland.com review of opening week rosters found Florida leads with the way with 193 players, based on the place of birth of each player. Second is California with 187, followed by Texas (160), Georgia (97), Ohio (80), Pennsylvania (66) and Louisiana (63).

Together these seven states are the birthplaces of 846 NFL players.

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The rest of the country and other places around the world are home to 838 players.

In Ohio, Cuyahoga County alone is the birthplace of 17 players. Twenty-eight states have fewer.



The Cuyahoga natives, with the listed place of birth, are:

Bedford

Cleveland Heights

Cleveland

Lakewood

Mayfield Heights

North Olmsted

Parma Heights

Strongsville

Westlake

Rankings could vary slightly because the birth places for 14 players were not immediately available, and rosters can change daily.

These rankings are based on rosters published by Stats LLC on Monday afternoon, three days before the start of the season.

Rank State Players 1 Florida 193 2 California 187 3 Texas 160 4 Georgia 97 5 Ohio 80 6 Pennsylvania 66 7 Louisiana 63 8 Alabama 60 9 New Jersey 50 10 South Carolina 48 11 Michigan 46 12 Virginia 43 13 North Carolina 42 14 Illinois 38 15 New York 36 16 Tennessee 34 17 Maryland 28 18 Mississippi 27 (tie) Missouri 27 (tie) Wisconsin 27 21 Arizona 24 22 Minnesota 20 23 Washington 18 24 Indiana 16 (tie) Oklahoma 16 26 Colorado 15 (tie) Kansas 15 28 Connecticut 14 (tie) Nebraska 14 30 Kentucky 13 31 Arkansas 12 (tie) Iowa 12 (tie) Oregon 12 34 Hawaii 10 35 D.C. 9 (tie) Nevada 9 37 Massachusetts 8 38 Delaware 7 39 Idaho 6 (tie) Utah 6 41 Montana 5 42 New Mexico 3 (tie) North Dakota 3 (tie) South Dakota 3 (tie) West Virginia 3 46 New Hampshire 2 (tie) Wyoming 2 48 Rhode Island 1 49 Alaska 0 (tie) Maine 0 (tie) Vermont 0

Other places

Place Players Canada 11 Nigeria 7 Australia 4 England 4 Jamaica 4 American Samoa 3 West Germany 3 Cameroon 2 Haiti 2 New Zealand 2 Belize 1 Brazil 1 Ghana 1 Italy 1 Japan 1 Kenya 1 Liberia 1 Poland 1 Scotland 1 Tonga 1 U.S. Virgin Islands 1 USSR 1

Note: Birthplace for 14 players could not immediately be determined.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner or see previous stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.