The NFL league minimal wage for the 2025 season is $840,000. That is what a brand-new rookie makes. For gamers with extra expertise, the minimal can rise as excessive as $1.255 million.
Even after you take away roughly half for taxes, plus one other chunk for brokers, union dues, {and professional} charges, each single league-minimum participant ought to have greater than sufficient to dwell very comfortably year-round. Nobody making $840,000 a 12 months is delivering Amazon packages within the offseason.
However that hasn’t at all times been the case within the NFL. And never only for rookies—even the league’s greatest stars as soon as wanted facet jobs to remain afloat. It is much more absurd than you are imagining.
Contemplate this: the highest-paid participant within the NFL proper now could be Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. Dak’s wage for the 2025 season is $60 million. Again within the Seventies, one other Cowboys quarterback—Roger Staubach—was additionally the famous person face of the Cowboys.
In January 1972, Roger Staubach led the Dallas Cowboys to their first Tremendous Bowl victory. Over the course of his profession, he guided the staff to 4 Tremendous Bowl appearances and two NFC Championships, received two Tremendous Bowls, earned Tremendous Bowl VI MVP honors, was named The Sporting Information Participant of the 12 months and NFC Participant of the 12 months in 1971, and made six Professional Bowl appearances. Oh, and he additionally popularized the “Hail Mary” move.
By these requirements, you would possibly assume Roger was compensated on the highest ranges conceivable for knowledgeable athlete and famous person celeb on the time. However that is not the case. When Roger’s seasons ended, he hung up his helmet, placed on a swimsuit, and went to work at his OTHER job. As a result of he needed to…
From Vietnam to Tremendous Bowl Star
Roger Staubach was born on February 5, 1942, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up in Silverton, Ohio, attended Purcell Excessive, then spent a 12 months on the New Mexico Navy Institute earlier than coming into the U.S. Naval Academy. Roger received the 1963 Heisman Trophy in his junior 12 months whereas taking part in for the Navy Midshipmen. After school, Staubach did his obligatory 4 years of energetic responsibility, together with a one-year tour of responsibility in Vietnam. Roger had truly been drafted by the Cowboys in 1964, his junior 12 months on the Naval Academy. So lastly, when his army commitments had been happy in 1969, he was capable of be part of the NFL as a 27-year-old rookie.
However this is the factor. Roger wasn’t a typical rookie, like you could be picturing. By the point he joined the Cowboys in 1969, Staubach had been married 4 years and was already a father of three. Roger married his spouse, Marianne, in September 1965, simply 4 months after he graduated from the Naval Academy. They’d finally have 5 kids (and dozens of grandchildren and a number of other great-grandchildren).
Roger’s rookie wage in 1969? $25,000.
Roger served as backup quarterback to Craig Morton for his first two seasons. A number of video games into the 1971 season, Morton was benched after a loss to the New Orleans Saints. Staubach and Morton alternated for a number of video games till week eight, when legendary Dallas coach Tom Landry decided that may alter the course of Dallas Cowboys historical past: He formally made Roger Staubach the staff’s beginning quarterback. Roger proceeded to steer the Cowboys to 10-straight wins, together with a victory over the Miami Dolphins at Tremendous Bowl VI in January 1972. It was Dallas’ first Tremendous Bowl win.
Wage Bump
Placing whereas the iron was scorching, two months later, Roger negotiated a three-year contract with the Cowboys that bumped his wage to $75,000 per 12 months. That is the identical as round $582,000 per 12 months in right now’s {dollars}. He negotiated the wage himself to economize. In an interview after the deal was introduced, Roger additionally introduced he was not going to do any extra work or exercises for the staff through the low season:
“I’ve obtained a protracted future forward, and I do not saturate myself with low season appearances. It could harm you as an athlete. I’ve begun figuring out, and by Might I will be going 5 days per week. I plan to do much more research within the low season than I did final 12 months.”
And whereas his need to keep away from burnout could have been honest, there was another excuse he was skipping staff exercises that spring: Roger could not have been capable of get the day without work accredited by his boss at his OTHER job.
Roger Staubach in 1978 (Photograph by James Drake/Getty Photographs)
From Star Quarterback To Actual Property Rookie
Regardless of being a famous person NFL quarterback, after his first season ended, Roger realized he wanted a second job to make ends meet. By way of a fellow Naval Academy graduate, he landed an entry-level job on the Henry S. Miller Firm, some of the revered industrial actual property corporations in Dallas. Henry Miller himself took an curiosity within the younger quarterback and supplied him a versatile place within the firm’s insurance coverage division. The setup was splendid: Roger might work mornings on fee, then report back to staff exercises within the afternoons.
He did not deal with the job as a novelty or a PR stunt. He handled it like one other playbook to grasp. Staubach earned his actual property license, discovered tips on how to analyze leases, and absorbed each element of the enterprise from seasoned brokers.
For six off-seasons, Staubach studied the industrial actual property market from the within. He watched how offers had been structured and observed one thing odd: practically each brokerage in Dallas represented landlords. Brokers would solely present purchasers the areas listed by their very own agency — even when higher choices existed elsewhere. Staubach thought that made no sense. Why not signify the tenant as an alternative, the precise firm searching for area, and present them each out there property?
That query — easy, logical, and disruptive — turned the seed of his empire. Staubach realized that by representing company tenants as an alternative of landlords, he might get rid of conflicts of curiosity and ship extra worth. It was a wholly completely different mind-set about industrial actual property. Within the early Seventies, nearly no one was doing it.
Turning Down A Fortune
The Cowboys received their second Tremendous Bowl in 1978. The next season, Roger led the Cowboys to their FIFTH Tremendous Bowl look. Sadly, at Tremendous Bowl XIII, the Cowboys ended up shedding to Terry Bradshaw‘s Pittsburgh Steelers.
When the season ended, Staubach confronted a call that may change his life. After a decade of incomes comparatively modest salaries, the Cowboys had been lastly ready to pay him just like the famous person he was. The staff supplied a two-year, $750,000 contract extension, AKA $375,000 per 12 months. That is the identical as round $1.7 million in right now’s {dollars}. On the time, that was practically six occasions increased than the league’s common wage.
Roger turned them down.
He was 37 years previous, nonetheless on the prime of his recreation, however prepared for the following chapter. Whereas many athletes struggled to think about life after soccer, Staubach had already been making ready for years. He’d spent six off-seasons mastering actual property, incomes his license, and creating a brand new enterprise mannequin. He’d discovered one thing he beloved each bit as a lot as the sport — and one thing that, in time, would make him far wealthier than any NFL contract ever might. And his new enterprise was already underway…
Elsa/Getty Photographs
The Staubach Firm
Two years earlier, in 1977, Roger Staubach had quietly launched his personal industrial actual property agency. He known as it The Staubach Firm, and its focus was so simple as it was revolutionary: signify the tenant, not the owner. He began with only a few workers, a small Dallas workplace, and the teachings he’d discovered from six years below Henry S. Miller.
When Roger formally retired from soccer in 1979, he shifted his full consideration to the corporate. He was 37 years previous, a two-time Tremendous Bowl champion, and a nationwide icon — however in enterprise, he was beginning over from scratch. His first purchasers included corporations like Industrial Metals and Steak & Ale, each of which wanted assist discovering new workplace or industrial area. Staubach’s method stood out instantly. Moderately than steering purchasers towards buildings listed by his agency, he analyzed the whole market and negotiated the perfect deal for the tenant — even when it meant leasing area from a competitor.
That type of transparency was nearly unprecedented within the trade on the time, nevertheless it shortly earned him a repute for integrity and outcomes. The identical qualities that outlined him as a quarterback — preparation, teamwork, and belief — turned the muse of his firm’s tradition.
By the mid-Eighties, The Staubach Firm had turn out to be certainly one of Texas’s most revered actual property corporations. Roger expanded rigorously, constructing regional places of work and giving native leaders fairness stakes of their territories. That possession mannequin created a staff mentality throughout the enterprise and ensured everybody had pores and skin within the recreation. “You’ll be able to have possession,” Staubach usually instructed his companions, “however you additionally should maintain income and losses.”
In 1986, he teamed up with Dallas dealer Chris Maguire to type Staubach Retail Companies, extending his tenant-first philosophy into the retail sector. Almost a decade later, they launched Cypress Equities, a improvement and funding arm that constructed procuring facilities and mixed-use tasks nationwide.
By way of the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, The Staubach Firm expanded into dozens of markets throughout North America. By 2007, the agency employed roughly 1,500 folks in 70 places of work and was dealing with greater than $28 billion in transactions yearly.
Not dangerous for a man who as soon as labored part-time within the low season simply to help his household.
The $650 Million Sale
By the mid-2000s, The Staubach Firm had turn out to be a nationwide powerhouse. Its company purchasers — together with AT&T, McDonald’s, and Kmart — relied on Staubach’s staff to deal with every little thing from website choice to complicated lease negotiations. However as extra purchasers expanded abroad, the corporate wanted a worldwide footprint to maintain up. Roger knew that to proceed rising, he’d should companion with a bigger agency.
In 2008, he agreed to merge The Staubach Firm with Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), one of many greatest actual property companies corporations on this planet. The deal was structured as a multi-year buyout valued at roughly $650 million.
Sharing The Windfall
For many entrepreneurs, that type of sale could be the final word cash-out. However in typical Staubach trend, he made certain the rewards had been shared. Because of his possession mannequin, greater than 300 workers held fairness within the agency when the sale closed. Every of them obtained a portion of the payout — in some circumstances, life-changing sums. Staubach reportedly distributed as much as 88% of the corporate’s inventory to companions and key workers through the years, maintaining solely a modest portion for himself.
Staubach stayed on with JLL as Government Chairman of the Americas to assist combine the 2 companies and preserve consumer relationships. His management and community proved invaluable. Between 2008 and 2013, he reportedly earned round $10–12 million per 12 months in wage and bonuses.
Underneath his steerage, the merged firm continued to thrive. However by then, Roger had already achieved what few athletes ever have: he’d constructed a post-sports profession that dwarfed his taking part in days, financially and professionally.
After stepping down from JLL in 2018, Roger Staubach did not precisely retire to a quiet life. He turned an advisor to Staubach Capital, a Dallas-based funding agency run by his daughter and son that focuses on actual property and personal fairness offers. He stays energetic in philanthropic and civic causes, supporting veterans’ organizations, teaching programs, and youth sports activities initiatives. His lifelong sense of service — first to his nation, then to his staff, and eventually to his enterprise companions — has outlined each chapter of his life.
For a person who as soon as made $25,000 as an NFL rookie, turning that right into a $650 million empire wasn’t simply success — it was one of many best second acts in sports activities historical past.
