So you are a high school athlete and you say that you want to be an NFL football player? Then you better sit down and take a hard look at these facts:
- According to the NFL Players Association, about 100,000 high school students play football.
- Of those high school players, 215 will go on to play for an NFL team.
- Therefore, only 0.2 percent of all high school football players will make it to the NFL.
- About 9,000 players make it to the college level.
- If a player makes it to college about 310 of them will actually make it to the NFL draft.
- The NFL roster cap is 53 players and there are 32 teams, so there are 1,696 players in the NFL each season.
The NFL Players Association indicates that the average football player's career is only three seasons long. Most players do not have guaranteed contracts, and may find themselves suddenly out of work because they were cut or because of injury. Around 400 NFL players end their NFL careers each year.
While the NFL's big-name stars may earn millions each year, average NFL players do not. In 2010, the minimum wage was $325,000 a season for rookies, going up to $395,000 in a player's second year and $470,000 in their third year.
Some first and second round draft picks may make more than this, but most players entering the NFL out of college do not. The average player salary, with both stars and rookies taken into consideration, was $1.1 million in 2010.
Most rookies starting their first year in the NFL earn a relatively small salary compared with stars of the draft and established veterans. Rookies selected in the later rounds of the draft or those who enter the NFL as undrafted free agents typically make the league minimum.
It is difficult to gauge the average starting football salary in the NFL because the monster contracts of the top rookie draft selections skew the overall numbers. In 2008, the average guaranteed salary for first-round picks was nearly $12 million, while for second-round picks that number dropped to around
$2 million and for third-rounders the average was just $650,000 in guaranteed compensation.
According to the NFL Players Association, the average NFL player makes $1.1 million annually. The NFL Players Association is the union that represents all NFL players.
The NFL has a salary cap that limits the total amount teams can spend on all of their players in a given year. The reason for the cap is to prevent one team from gaining an unfair playing advantage by spending the most on the more prized players.
Each rookie in the NFL earned at least a base salary of $325,000 in 2010, according to USA Today. The base salary does not include any bonuses or money earned from endorsements or other sources. Bonuses, including signing bonuses and performance bonuses, are paid separately.
A first-year player's salary is comprised of three things: base salary, prorated signing bonus and "likely to be earned" bonuses. Other incentives written into a player's contract do not go toward a team's rookie salary pool figure. Each team's rookie salary pool figure changes yearly and in 2010 the
St. Louis Rams had the highest total rookie salary pool at $7,596,000.
In the past two NFL drafts the top players chosen have set new records for the highest paid rookie players in the league. In 2010, the Rams signed quarterback Sam Bradford to a contract worth a total of $78 million over six seasons, including $50 million in guaranteed money. The previous year, the Detroit Lions signed quarterback Matthew Stafford to what was then the highest rookie contract --- a six-year deal worth $72 million.
By contrast QB Cam Newton, the first pick of the 2012 NFL draft, signed a four year contract for a measly $22 million under the new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement that went into effect this past year.
Top rookie salaries are not the norm in the league; many players only make the base salary. In a final tally of 2009 salaries, USA Today reported that rookies at each position in the league only earned the minimum salary and did not get bonuses. These players are usually low-round draft choices --- rounds four through seven --- and play for teams with low rookie salary pool figures.
FU ranked number one in baseball. Hopefully, we can kick some gator tail this year
Posted by: Old Skool | January 25, 2012 at 08:26 PM
FU ranked number one in baseball. Hopefully, we can kick some gator tail this year
Posted by: Old Skool | January 25, 2012 at 08:26 PM
Yes we will! The Canes have a very very good team this year.
Posted by: Montreal-Cane | January 25, 2012 at 09:47 PM
Howard sure did say "we" a lot, and not "they",,good sign lol
Posted by: UMike | January 25, 2012 at 10:33 PM
mi@mic@ne - I am one of those fans who loves to watch great defenses. And that goes for any sport, but especially for football. And I REALLY miss the days when we had great defenses.
I hope you are right about Golden. I don't have any reason to not believe in him. It's mainly due to the "lost decade" effect - and the fact that I am older and more tepid in getting too high or too low on the team's direction than in the past - but let's be honest, it was waaaay too easy then; )
Posted by: pre83 | January 25, 2012 at 11:45 PM
SOUP -
Well, I would be all in paying for that interview w/ Butch! I can't imagine he would ever do such an interview unless he was done w/ football, which I can't believe he is yet. He knows that what he knows is worth waaay too much, and in today's market, it's worth more than ever!
But you know, that is what REALLY intrigues me - there were guys like Kehoe & Shannon that have spent the better part of their lives around this program during its most successful periods (& in Shannon's case, some of the not-so-successful). To me, it is just as mind boggling that at least one of them didn't learn from Butch...seriously!?
Perhaps that is one of the reasons that Golden wanted Kehoe back. I don't know that answer, but we will find out soon enough about what Golden will or will not accomplish.
Someday I am sure that Butch will share his secrets - I for one will be waiting!
What I failed to note in the first post about the topic is that it is even more remarkable considering the points you so brilliantly illustrated in your 5* recruit report - Very well done Ocho Seis. Muy bien hecho! Y muchisimas gracias!
Posted by: pre83 | January 25, 2012 at 11:59 PM
DrewZ2 - Those were some great points on the Fisch situation. There are usually MANY more aspects to a coaching hire than most people consider.
Of course you never know, but your points are as important to the equation as any of the others.
Coke - I, too, was around during the Omar days of yesteryear. However, I am sure you were mainly referring to Calvin, Cav, pb, et al.
I don't know what any of them are up to. I hope all is well with them and hope to see them around again myself.
Posted by: pre83 | January 26, 2012 at 12:08 AM
One thing I hope that does not disappear within the U family is for the former players to stop returning to CG and working out with the boyz.
Butch's boys are getting up there a bit, but there are still a fair amount who played for Clappy or RS that I hope still carry on the tradition. Guys such as Olsen, Beason, Hester, Graham, Franklin, Bailey, etc.
Time for AG and Co to reassert the U's position in the football universe.
Posted by: pre83 | January 26, 2012 at 12:15 AM
SaveUMFootball Papa Cane
Recruiting Update: 5-Star LB Josh Harvey-Clemons, 6'5" and 210 lbs, will visit Miami this weekend. Great young man. Super athlete.
SaveUMFootball Papa Cane
Recruiting Update: Coaches Golden and Kehoe plan on visiting 5-Star OL Avery Young tomorrow. Looking forward to good news.
SaveUMFootball Papa Cane
Recruiting Update: Miami has offered 2013 DE DeMarcus Walker, 6'4" and 255 lbs, from Jacksonville, FL. Video: ow.ly/1EP1f9
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Man if we land 2 all-world Georgia linebackers the same year, I'm going to (bleeping) lose it!
Also, love the Avery Young timing. Sure sounds like he's ready to commit.
Posted by: Felipe | January 26, 2012 at 12:31 AM
I have been too busy to pipe in here, and I hate NSD hype with a passion after following it so closely in 2008. So my opinion on all of this if whoever we sign, we shall see what they produce on the field. I have seen so many great prospects never materialize to get hyped up about it.
I do want to comment on Butch though. I followed him closely when he was our coach. Numerous article were written about his attention to organization. As a kid, seriously, he considered the organization of his dresser important. His clothes had to be in the right place at all times, and the clothes in his dresser had to be in the right drawer.
Why is that important? Because when he took over at the U, we were under scholly reductions. He wrote a chart of needs, and there was no lack of them after 4 years orf Erickson recruiting. And he had to fill them over a period of years, 4, because everyone would forgive him for losing the first few years (but by God man, to lose 47-0 at Tally was his biggest black mark). He did it in innovative ways. I think Santana Moss was a track scholarship his first year or so to fill needs. And once he identified a need, he recruited that position incredibly hard for each year to get the best players during his tenure.
Like Martin Luther King once said, I choose to love because choosing to hate is too great of a burden. Unfortunately, when it comes to some fanatical Canes supporters, and prominent financial boosters, they choose to hate Butch for leaving for the NFL, even when, if given the same chance in their own personal lives, they would have jumped in a heartbeat.
Butch came down here and pleaded in the press to get the Canes job before Randy was hired. He was turned away like he never did anything for the program because certain financial supporters could not relieve themselves of the burden of chooosing hate over love. It was a great mistake. He then chose UNC. While that didn't work out for him, it also didn't work out for UM.
Golden seems to have many Butch type qualities, and I am curious what will develop here. I am all in in regard to supporting Al. But one day, the university really should give Butch his due because although he didn't "coach" a national chamionship team, there is NO doubt he built one. And these old crusty boosters need to embrace love and drop the hate. Just my opinion.
Posted by: SJMPARMAN | January 26, 2012 at 01:22 AM
On topic though, when you read the article, how can anyone think ANY of the early declarers for the NFL draft made the right decision??? ALL of those guys made a HUGE mistake, and ANY agent who advised them to leave early did not do a service to his client and should not be considered by any future NFL recruit as someone who they can rely on them for putting their best interest over his personal best interest. This year was the greatest example of a guy going all in for himself to the exclusion of the players he supposedly represents. If I said more, I would be sued, but you get my drift.
Posted by: SJMPARMAN | January 26, 2012 at 01:32 AM
It's too bad Drew Rosenhaus didn't graduate from Florida...
Posted by: Felipe | January 26, 2012 at 01:39 AM
As a CYA I did not identify any specific agent. I am sure other agents may have been involved.
Posted by: SJMPARMAN | January 26, 2012 at 01:40 AM