First ever NFL Draft pick started $30m company after $15k salary dispute ended career before it began

Jay Berwanger has one of the wildest stories in NFL Draft history.

The No.1 overall pick in the first ever NFL draft had a unlikely twist of fate in his football career and never actually got the chance to play in the league.

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Berwanger never played a single snap in the NFL and it wasn’t due to talent, but rather, salary.

The draft process was introduced in the mid 1930s in order to end teams engaging in expensive bidding wars for the best college players.

So when the draft took place for the first time in 1936 at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the hometown Eagles had the first pick and there was only one man they wanted.

That would be the standout halfback from the University of Chicago, Berwanger, the prized prospect every team wanted.

The the 21-year-old entered the draft after having a remarkable season, having rushed for 577 years, passed for 405 yards, returned kick-offs for 359 yards and scored six touchdowns.

It was that season that saw the 6 ft 1 in star become the first ever winner of the Heisman trophy, which back then was called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy.

However, after the Eagles landed the country’s best emerging talent, their excitement turned out to be short-lived.

Berwanger was demanding salary of $1000 per game.

At the time, players were only making $50 to $100 for taking the field.

The Eagles were not willing to meet his demands and they traded his draft rights to the Chicago Bears.

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The Bears offered Berwanger a salary of $13,500 but he wanted $15,000, and in the end they were unable to agree a deal.

So, like what people who can’t get their dream job, he looked for another one.

Berwanger would take a job with a Chicago rubber company and becomes a salesman.

He also served as a flight instructor in the Navy during World War II.

Later on he would start up Jay Berwanger Inc., a plastic and rubber manufacturer based in Chicago suburb Downers Grove.

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, when Berwanger sold his company in the 1990s, it was grossing $30 million per year.

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Publicly, Berwanger never expressed any regret about not becoming a professional football player.

He told the associated press in 1977, he only has one.

“My regret about those days has nothing to do with my not signing,” he said.

“My regret was that I didn’t buy a Bears season ticket then. These days you can hardly buy one for any amount of money.”

Berwanger remained a humble figure throughout his career.

He was very modest about the Heisman Trophy, which he left with his Aunt Gussie, who used it as a doorstop before it was bequeathed to the University of Chicago Athletic Hall of Fame, where it is on display today.

Berwanger died after a lengthy battle with lung cancer at his home in Illinois on June 26, 2002, at the age of 88.

Life will be very different for the prospects who take to the stage in Pittsburgh for the 2026 draft.

Although the recent advent of NIL has created the unusual situation where some players are better off staying in college.

Dante Moore’s return to Oregon was the latest example and made a light class at QB even thinner.