If i want to become a team physician, should i practice family medicine or emergency medicine? i would specialize in sports medicine after.

Orthopedics : Sports medicine fellowship after several residencies besides those you mentioned (er), physiatry for example. You can also be a chiropractor and serve professional athletes well.

Neither: Both of these specialists (eps and fps) are well suited for standby and on-call at all manor of events where they would respond not just to player injury, but to any health emergency occurring, be it a player, official, or spectator. Sports medicine is classically in the realm of orthopedic surgery and on the training end, physical medicine (physical therapy docs).

Consider PMR : Physiatry, or physical medicine and rehabilitation, also allows you to complete fellowship training in primary care sports medicine. The question is do you want to be more competent in handling acute on field emergencies, general primary care of athletes, or a focus on msk care, interventional procedures, msk ultrasound, disabled athletes and rehabilitation.

Orthopaedics and FP: Family practice docs typically practice sports medicine. Requires 4 years of medical school and either orthopaedic surgery residency (5years) or family practice residency (3years) and then 1 year sports medicine fellowship. Ortho does surgery, family practice takes care of the whole athlete, non-surgical.

Either: Several types of physicians become team physicians, most have additional sports medicine fellowship training. Depends on what you like, fast pace of er, pulling out stethoscope and otoscopes in fp, then there's surgery with orthopaedics, or in-depth musculoskeletal focus of physical medicine ; rehabilitation. All can specialize in sports medicine afterwards.

Depends: I'm not sure your age or level of education. A Team Physician (like myself) is usually an Orthopaedic Surgeon. Many teams also have a Primary Care Physician as well whom may have special training in Sports Medicine. An Emergency Physician can also offer may skills as well, but not as specific to Sports medicine. Hope this helps.