Nah I played semipro for 5 years or so here in town and I know I for one never got paid. It was fun though. Taking roadtrips, hanging out with the guys after games. Lot of fun. If my body wasn't a collection of frayed cartilage and creaky joints I'd still be playing.
Yeah, it's kind of like high level amateur football. Guys have other jobs but get together and play in a league. You hear about the teams that the NYPD and NYFD have every so often. Teams like those donate any profits to charities. Check out this site: http://www.semiprofootball.org/ They have a list of teams by state. Houston has about 10 semi-pro teams. Most leagues don't pay anything and many players actually pay to play. The term "semi-pro" is used differentiate it from HS or College ball and indicate that it's at a higher level than some casual rec league.
Its totally unpaid im out here in colorado springs and i cant wait until the season starts. My team went to the championship game last season but we lost. Check out my sweet highlight vid: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-HGYUwXuZzU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-HGYUwXuZzU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> http://youtube.com/watch?v=-HGYUwXuZzU The first play is my 53 yrd td run. The second is a short pass i caught and then blasted a guy. The final one is me folding one of their guys like a lawn chair
So it's high school football for old guys that didn't make the college squad, or didn't get past college ball? Seems fun if you play... but hardly interesting unless you personally know someone in it. Looks cool though. Definitely would try it if I was in shape and had the coin to risk injury, etc.
Actually one of the younger guys on our team went on to make the Texans camp a couple of years, so I wouldn't exactly say it's completely for us rejects who, "didn't get past college ball". Sure the vast majority of the guys are like me who were good enough to play college ball, and even be successful at it, but lacked one quality (speed, didn't play at a high level program, etc.) that didn't get them over the hump and in to pro ball. However, there's always one or two guys. I remember Arizona had a defensive lineman a few years ago they found playing semipro ball and delivering ice or something like that. Even made a couple of Pro Bowls for them.
Semi pro football = advanced rec league basketball. Absolutely nothing wrong with that though. Never any reason to stop doing something you like. Eric Swann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Swann If he had Bruce Smith longevity he almost might coulda played on this past Cardinals team. He's a year older than Kurt Warner
