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With all these multi-million-a-year contracts flying around during NFL free agency, it can be hard to imagine it wasn’t always this way. However, for the majority of the history of the league, football was predominantly a poorly paying part-time job on the side. Let’s get into who got what money and when!
The Advent of the NFL
A fun fact is that the NFL is older than the concept of a “minimum wage.” Half the states had a minimum wage law by 1925. For example, California employers were required to pay at least 16 cents an hour since 1916. Notably, this law only applied to men, except for select women who worked in very specific industries. The US Supreme Court felt that the concept of a minimum wage was unconstitutional. Needless to say, workers rights, including for football players, were in their infancy.
Ironically, despite the extremely racist history of the NFL, in the early 1920s, Native American Jim Thorpe and African American Fritz Pollard were the highest-paid players in the league. Both men were hired to be a player and the head coach at the same time. Pollard was said to make roughly $1,500 a game, and Thorpe was paid $500 a week during the season. The typical player made $100-$300 a game. Red Grange was the first player to break the NFL with his 1925 contract netting $100,000 a year and a share of gate sales. The halfback was an anomaly.
Impact
Being paid per game would be a tough metric to plan a budget around. Here is the NFL season schedule development process for teams in the 1920s. There was no set number of games a team would play; sometimes a team would collapse in a moment’s notice mid-season, and the NFL season was shorter than it is now. In other words, the NFL was a part-time, seasonal position with little to no job security.
The vast majority of players had a full-time job in the off-season, and some had a job on the side even during the season. It wasn’t totally unusual that an athlete would work all week and only have their Sunday to dedicate to the sport, especially during the “training camp” season. Training camps were extremely rare, and a weekend of practice away would be a luxury for both player and coach. Practice was a rare luxury even during the season.
In what can be compared to a church or neighborhood softball team today, the first NFL players basically jumped on the field with little to no training, physical conditioning, and the skill level that they were naturally gifted with. ‘Working out’ during the week would be sweating away in a sheet metal factory or working in a mine. That means players didn’t have typically strong cardio or muscles in football-friendly locations.
Obviously, this makes players particularly prone to injury. Many early NFL players were single men since they didn’t have the financial security to maintain a family, especially when injured. There was also a notable increase in the number of men aged 40 and above who became players, likely due to the opportunity they missed while serving in the military. It was a diverse assortment of men that came together on the gridiron in this era.
1930s
Things didn’t get better during the Great Depression. Black players got booted from the teams by 1933 because the audience didn’t want to see men of color get paid when so many white men weren’t. Gross. Many franchises collapsed during this era, leaving more white players in a lurch.
The draft officially began in 1936, which highlighted how many talented college football players avoided the NFL (75% the first year). The salaries were on the lower end of what was being offered in the 1920s due to the economy. Interestingly, the 1930s also brought about the first federal minimum wage in 1938. People (men) had to receive at least a quarter an hour and had to be paid overtime if they exceeded 40 hours a week.
Although these concepts might have been helpful, it was difficult to enforce that in the world of the NFL. No one would follow behind a head coach-player and notate the hours he works each week. Also, it’s impossible to pay athletes hourly in general. However, it does show a societal focus on fairer pay and work conditions.
1940s
The NFL’s reputation was slowly improving. College ball was still considered top dog to most Americans, but the professional league attempted to set themselves apart with their talent and rules and such. The draft also became better developed. African Americans were also begrudgingly invited back for the 1946 season.
Things were slightly warming up for the NFL to become the league we know today. However, WWII was a thing, so the money was as tight as ever. Men were also going off to the draft, so we’re dealing with a smaller pool of able-bodied young men, and a lot of Tom Bradys are creating magic on the field. The number of elderly players actually brought about unlimited free substitutions for the first time during the war. It’s amazing anything, especially the NFL, thrived when society had been in shambles for decades.
In 1949, free substitution officially became a rule. It disappeared in between the end of the war and the final year of the decade, but the players weren’t letting that rule go. This meant players didn’t have to play offense and defense and were expected to play all 60 minutes unless a player was half dead from injury. Prior to the rule, once you tapped out, you couldn’t come back in. In addition, the NFL grew after merging with another professional league.
Thank God It’s The ’50s
Good things were happening for the NFL (and basically no one else) in the 1950s. Helmets went from leather to thin, bendable plastic. The ‘free substitution’ rule allowed for the beginning of specialization in players. You didn’t have to play on both sides of the ball, and you didn’t have to be able to play the full 60 minutes. Enter chunkier players who were fierce defenders.
The number of African Americans was growing in the league, which improved the game in basically every way. More people were participating, making the league slightly more desirable occupationally. Also, “waste not, want not” was out with the rations, and people could actually afford to watch and play football. Hold onto your horses, though—players still needed multiple jobs.
In the late 1950s, NFL players became ungrateful whiners. According to the franchise owners. Popularity was definitely increasing, but those salaries weren’t. For the first time, players suggested a minimum contract amount in the league, and the NFL laughed in response. Nobody was getting a penny over $6,000. Which, granted, was better than past decades but was still pennies in comparison to the cost of living rising.
1960s
The free love era of the 1960s was hard for the old-fashioned, miserly owners who enjoyed the benefits of capitalism and classism and struggled to adapt to things like paying their players. It was too soon to expect a decent paycheck, but we were crawling towards that goal. The NFLPA was lurking in the background, originating in 1956 and laying low in the 1960s.
This decade was also a popular time for other professional leagues to creep up. The American Football League (AFL) was created in 1959 and was looking for players. Much like the WWE, competition created power for the athletes. If you didn’t like one league, you could go to another, and loyalty was secondary to benefits. The NFL would have to pay up or shut up quite a bit through the next decades.
1970s – The NFL is Getting Warmer
The 1970s was sort of the actualization of what was building up in the background in past decades. The NFLPA made its presence known in 1970 with required pay-outs. $9,000 for the rookies and $10,000 for veterans. Money was also set aside for player pensions. This amount would fluctuate over the 1970s. We are really cooking now.
New leagues sprouting up in the 1970s also kept the NFL on its toes. Combine that with becoming more popular than baseball, and those sweet, sweet TV deals had those salaries on fire. At least in theory. In 1977, the Super Bowl had the most viewers ever in sports history. It was fourth of all time at that point, rivaling things like the funeral of JFK and the 1969 moonwalk. That’s what we call good company. It’s only a matter of time before we get some coin.
Ding, Ding, Ding – It’s the 1980s
We started at the bottom ($100 a game), and now we are here. The NFLPA grew in power, football was getting only more popular, and we still had competitive leagues trying to snag players to keep the NFL honest. Two NFL strikes later, and players were balling. We started to see some million-dollar action in this decade. A professional football player for the first time only needed one job, could support a family, and also had time to focus on things like conditioning and training camps. This is very much the beginning of the NFL we know and love today.
Expensivity did a fantastic article on the NFL salaries over the ages. In 1986, the average salary was just below $200,000—three times as much as the average in 1976 and eight times more than in 1969. John “Lam” Jones was the first player to have a contract of over a million. By 1988, 12 players were making at least a mil contractually. Make that money, men!
In Conclusion
It took the NFL 60 years to pay their players enough to be able to have a family and just have to work as an athlete professionally. Granted, for roughly 20 of those years we were dealing with the Great Depression and the Second World War. No one was getting paid.
Fans today may find it hard to believe that someone like Terry Bradshaw had side jobs selling used cars in the 1970s, but that was the reality until the 1980s. We may get frustrated with what feels like exorbitant salaries; players deserve every penny since they’re putting life and limb on the line each and every game.
They’ll almost certainly have CTE, arthritis, joint replacement surgeries, and astronomical health insurance costs after their five years of coverage through the NFLPA run out. Give these men their coin! And read more of my articles available here!
