The clubs had good reason to bid for his services. became one of their targets.Ī page from the Allegheny Athletic Association's account book showing three members of the team under contract in 1892.
Heffelfinger - a low-salaried railroad office employee in Omaha, Neb. As the game approached, both teams were determined to beef up their squads. 12, 1892, contest between Pittsburgh-area rivals the Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club changed everything. But none of them paid cash, at least not openly.Ī Nov. With the competition between clubs becoming more intense, many tried to circumvent the restriction by finding jobs for their stars, awarding players expensive trophies or watches that they could pawn, or doubling their expense money. (Pro Football Hall of Fame)Īt the time, all football players were supposed to be amateurs - many of them playing for teams created by the athletic clubs that sprang up across the country after the Civil War.
Sizewise jobs pro#
Heffelfinger posthumously earned the status as the country’s first professional football player.Īt 6 feet 3 inches tall and 200 pounds, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger “was especially big for that era and towered over his opponents,” according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There may have been others before him, but a document unearthed by the Pro Football Hall of Famenearly 80 years later provided the first irrefutable evidence of a person being paid to play. 12, 1892, Heffelfinger received $500 in cash for playing in a football game. But it all had to start somewhere - in this case, with a man named William “Pudge” Heffelfinger. The league, in turn, surrounds them with resources to help them become the best they can be. NFL players are professionals in every sense of the word, well-paid and well-trained students of the game whose lives revolve around football.
Their training and preparation often continues through the offseason. (Pro Football Hall of Fame) (AP Photo/Jeff Bottari)Īs players progress from high school through the pros, they’re increasingly supported, coached and counseled by trainers, nutritionists and medical staff that prepare them for peak performance on gameday and help them recover from injury. Hall of Famer Wilbur “Pete” Henry, aka “Fats,” was one of the NFL’s largest and most dominant linemen in the 1920s at 5 feet 11 inches and 245 pounds, but would be dwarfed by present-day players such as 6 foot 6 inch, 313-pound New Orleans offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk. And players are more specialized by position, with physical attributes and customized training rituals unique to their roles. Most players are bigger and stronger - particularly offensive and defensive linemen, whose size and weight surpass the average man's. Competition for roster spots is fierce, with fewer than 1 percent of all college football players earning a roster post at the game’s highest level. Today, only football’s elite players get to the NFL, and they are very well-compensated: the average contract at the start of the 2017 season was $2.25 million. The game and the players changed over time as the rules changed, and as the league became more competitive, popular and prosperous. Their pay made them “professional” by definition, but with a laxity to the term that would not apply today. It was common for players to “job in” for weekend contests, which didn’t allow for practice time with their teams. Their lives didn’t revolve around the game. Physically, players were bigger, heavier and stronger than the average man, but not astronomically so. Meager pay and a sport struggling for popularity meant players worked other jobs and the league struggled to attract talent. Playing rules prohibited most substitutions, so they played both offensive and defensive positions, on every down.
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