Apart from the few star players, professional football doesn&#x27;t pay <i>that</i> well. Certainly not enough to make up for it being a pretty short career.<p>I&#x27;m not sure what it is today, but &quot;roster fillers&quot; in the NFL were only making $50k&#x2F;year not all that long ago. The average career length is 6 years according to the NFL, and 3.3 years according to the players&#x27; union. Decent players will make over 100k, but it&#x27;s still a pretty short career.