With most players poised to make only $35,000 for the UFL’s inaugural six-game season, a passing reference to the maximum available salary in a new AP item suggests that the upstart league is planning to break the bank, relatively speaking, in an effort to land quarterback Mike Vick.
Per the article, the maximum salary will “approach” the $620,000 minimum salary for a fourth-year NFL veteran.
What’s unclear is whether the AP means that the maximum will be close to $620,000 for an entire UFL season, or whether the comparison is based on prorated per-game amounts.
But even if it’s the latter, the maximum single-season UFL salary will be more than $200,000.
Either way, the high end likely relates to the package that the UFL is contemplating offering to quarterback Mike Vick, in the event that the NFL declines to reinstate him for the 2009 season.
Vick will be released from federal custody in one week. At that point, Vick likely will ask NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for reinstatement.