# How are pro athletes paid?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-pro-athletes-paid/422625
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 13, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-pro-athletes-paid/422625 "2007-10-13T23:15:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-pro-athletes-paid/422625/21 "2007-10-15T01:23:50Z")
Kansas City’s free alternative, [The Pitch](http://www.pitch.com/2007-09-13/news/end-zone/), printed an article about ex-NFL players and their struggle to get insurance. It highlights a few players and the injuries they received.
> [@](#):
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> Three years later, on September 24, 2002, a 50-year-old Webster, suffering from depression and dementia, died of a heart attack. Doctors concluded that, during his career snapping footballs, Webster had suffered the equivalent of 25,000 automobile crashes.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-pro-athletes-paid/422625/22 "2007-10-15T01:45:26Z")
And Mike Ditka is part of (and main spokesman for) an organization (the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund) that is trying hard to make sure that former players are able to get the care and help they need. These guys weren’t paid much, didn’t get retirement benefits, helped build the league, and now are suffering the effects of all those collisions and injuries. There have been two games I watched live this season (Broncos-Bills week 1 and a Texans game a couple weeks ago) where I thought there was a real chance that a man could be dead there on the field.
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