OJ Simpson Buffalo Bills 1975 / 1976
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The first football player to make a million dollars a year was Joe Namath. In 1969, Namath signed a three-year contract with the New York Jets that paid him a total of $3 million, making him the highest-paid player in football at the time.
John Brailer
The first MLB player to earn $1 million per year was Nolan Ryan in 1979. I haven't been able to find the NBA & NFL players as of yet.
Kirby Puckett
Trevor Francis, signed from Birmingham in 1979.
The first documentation of a player being paid for playing football is an expense sheet from the 1892 Allegheny Athletic Association's football team that shows a $500 payment to William Heffelfinger.