Pro Football Facts-You Won't Believe The NFL Players Salaries

Did you ever wonder where the name "football" came from? It is believed football derived from an ancient Greek game called harpaston. There are references to harpaston as being a rough and brutal game (sounds like football, huh?).

In the United States this game became known as "foot ball" and in 1609 in Virginia they used a blown up bladder to play the game. Modern day American football actually evolved from the sport of soccer which in Europe they called "football."

When the game was first played, you could not use your hands but only your feet to play. Then as rugby football began, it actually involved the use of hands. With aspects coming from all of these sports, American football was born and is now known around the world.

Now that you know where football originated, let's move onto the world of Pro Football and a few of the basic facts about both the NFL players and teams.

In August of 2009 Eli Manning became the NFL’s highest paid player, when averaged out comes to roughly an annual salary of $15.3 million through the 2015 season.

Earlier in 2009 Nnamdi Asomugha who was an All-Pro cornerback for the Oakland raiders had been the highest paid player on average with a 3 year, $45.3 million contract.

Then you have defensive end Julius Peppers of the Carolina Panthers who became the NFL's highest paid player for that season with a one-year $16.7 million contract.

It can get pretty complicated depending on how their salaries are contracted out, parts are guaranteed regardless of performance or injury others have stipulations and the salary caps and rules are constantly changing.

For instance for the 2010 season rookie Quarterback Sam Bradford signed a five year contract with the St. Louis Rams for a mere $86 million but the kicker is that $50 million of that is guaranteed. It's deals like this that start a new precedent for the NFL.

During 2003 the stats for the NFL Kickoff Roster listed over 300 players who weighed in at a 300 pound minimum and stood at an average of 6'3". In 2009 in an ongoing effort for NFL players to cut down on body fat, the average height was 6'4" and and the average weight had dropped to a trim 240 lbs. Bear in mind that different positions do have different requirements for their height and weight. But for most positions, players are required to be at least 6’1” in height and weigh in at about 245 pounds.

Based on the NFL Stats from 2009, the average earnings of the highest playing NFL team is $1.1 million (Pittsburgh Steelers) and the lowest salary team is Green Bay (Packers) at an average of only $440,000.

This does not include any players that may get a signing bonus each time they sign a new contract that might include a per game season allowance. So, all in all, for the 2009 season, the average salary of an NFL football player range was $770,000, which was up from the 2008 average of $720,000.

For the 2009 season the Redskins get the prize for highest payroll at a cool $123 million and for the lowest payroll of $76 million, The Giants win.

Pro football's official rules and regulations are determined by the National Football League The rules set forth by the NFL consist of Official’s Jurisdiction, positions and its duties. In Pro football the officials who actually call the game consist of the umpire, the referee, head linesman, line judge, field judge, side judge, and back judge.

The definitions of the game, including the Summary and Penalties, field, end zone and official markings are all handled by the NFL. The official markings are crucial to the game as they are meant to help avoid confusion in terms of goal lines, sidelines, and end lines.

There are rules pertaining to fumbles, double foul, unfair acts, kicking from scrimmage and intentional grounding of forward pass that all imposed by the National Football League. The teams, coaches, staff and players all are supposed to follow the Official Rules and Regulations of NFL in every game for the whole season.

Besides being available at many websites for download or viewed for free, there are books available that contain all the official rules and regulations for the NFL.

I am sure most everyone knew that the NFL salaries are getting off the charts crazy but I hope you found these Pro Football Facts interesting.