Here's some information that I found on NFL salaries and rules regarding practice squad members in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen: "If you’re wondering why they’d do that, staying in top shape and hoping for a call that might not come, know that the minimum NFL salary in 2019 ranges from US$495,000 for a rookie to
$1.03 million for a player with 10 or more years of experience.
Even a spot on an NFL team’s 10-man practice squad pays a minimum of $8,000 per week, which over a 17-week regular season equates to $136,000.
Such spots are available, however, only to players who do not have an accrued season of free agency credit, who have dressed for no more than eight games in any one season and who have not been parked on a practice squad for more than two seasons previously.
Even a full season of practice-squad remuneration probably is more money than even a former NFLer could command in the CFL. And it’s likely more than he’d make in the XFL next year, when that league resumes operation, as 41 players on every 45-man XFL roster will earn salaries between $50,000 and $100,000.
There’s just so much more money available to players in the NFL. Indeed, whereas the 2019 salary cap in the NFL is US$188.2 million, in the CFL it’s $5.7 million (US$4.3 million), less than three per cent of the NFL’s cap."