NFL training camp pay ranges from $2,000 a week for first-year players to $3,500 for veterans, plus housing and meals.
By PAUL KUHARSKY
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It's one of the most popular questions I get this time of year, from fans who know NFL players don't start getting paid their real salaries until the regular season starts.
How much do they make during training camp and the preseason, which, while it's hardly like the old days, can still be an awful, hot and grueling piece of the NFL calendar?
The answer: $2,000 a week for first-year players, $3,500 for veterans.
The CBA also calls for teams to provide housing and meals for all players during camp. And for players who haven't yet established residence in their team's city, housing extends to the Tuesday before their team's first game of the regular season.
Some coaches allow veterans to stay at home. But for Robert Saleh's first camp with the Titans, he will have all the players in a local hotel for camp.
For an undrafted rookie free agent like tackle Aamil Wagner, who got $20,000 to sign out of Notre Dame and is a long shot to make the team, that $2,000 may mean a great deal. For Jeffery Simmons, who recently signed a three-year contract extension that includes $100 million in guarantees, $3,800 is obviously a much smaller piece of his incoming money.
Marc Mariani was a Titans seventh-round pick in 2010 out of Wyoming who was a Pro Bowl return man as a rookie.
"It’s been so long I can barely remember, but honestly it had to be so minimal that I don’t think it moved the needle," he said of his weekly money during camp. "We lived in the hotel and ate every meal at the facility, so I don’t know that we needed much.
"Sixteen years ago, it had to be $500 or less. I was definitely a guy who just lived in the facility and hotel and got all the free stuff I could."
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