football player vs player

football player and player both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
football player	Yes	No	No	No
player	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, player is a hypernym of football player; that is, player is a word with a broader meaning than football player:

Other hypernyms of football player include athlete, jock, participant.

football player (noun)	player (noun)
an athlete who plays American football	a theatrical performer
	a person who participates in or is skilled at some game
	someone who plays a music as a profession
	a person who pursues a number of different social and sexual partners simultaneously
	someone who takes part in an activity