While the best NFL players are millionaires a lot of times it’s not that easy for the rest of the league.
The NFL’s minimum salary for rookies was $795,000 in 2024, representing the smallest salary of all of the league’s nearly 1,700 active players who remain signed throughout the year. It sounds lucrative, but like wife of a former NFL player Chad Hansen Explained, life in the league isn’t always as rich as it seems.
In a December video posted on TikTok, Bryce Watts Hansen debunked the misconception that everyone in the NFL is a millionaire.
Chad, now 29, spent five years in the NFL, bouncing between the New York Jets New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons.
“He was on eight different NFL teams,” Watts Hansen said in the video. “That means eight different treaties are being signed and broken.”
She acknowledged that even at their worst, players still make significant money, but that comes with costs that many don’t consider — including Watts Hansen until he faces the realities of must constantly move.
“I know how to get a flight, move all our stuff. It’s kind of like a price you have to eat. she continued. “It’s just like all these little things that you can like have to play out in your head.”
“NFLLadiesThe podcast host added that at one point she and her husband were paying rent in three different cities because of the unpredictable nature of his job. And in the month and a half that the wide receiver was a member of the Falcons, they paid $10,000 to move to Atlanta.
Watts Hansen also admitted that he used to believe that all players were millionaires, but that is not the reality for those who constantly sign and then cut.
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“It would be great if that was the case, if we were a team and all that stuff,” she explained. “But you know, that’s just not the reality for everybody.”
“(Chad) signed a contract. Then a few months later you don’t get anything, especially if you sign at the beginning of the offseason and then you’re cut during the offseason,” she added. “You don’t see any of that money because you haven’t played over and over, you haven’t gone to practice.”
Players must also consider the risky nature of their work. Watts-Hansen said the couple had to spend a significant amount on doctor visits, just another one of those “odd little things here and there.”
And even for players who have more established careers, the money doesn’t go as far as some think. The average NFL player only lasts three to four years in the league before being forced to retire with no other professional experience. Even a six-seven-figure salary for those few years won’t last a lifetime.
