While His Fellow NFL Players Relaxed In The Offseasons, Roger Staubach Quietly Turned His Side Hustle Into A $650 Million Real Estate Empire

The NFL league minimum salary for the 2025 season is $840,000. That's what a brand-new rookie makes. For players with more experience, the minimum can rise as high as $1.255 million.

Even after you remove roughly half for taxes, plus another chunk for agents, union dues, and professional fees, every single league-minimum player should have more than enough to live very comfortably year-round. No one making $840,000 a year is delivering Amazon packages in the offseason.

But that hasn't always been the case in the NFL. And not just for rookies—even the league's biggest stars once needed side jobs to stay afloat. It's even more absurd than you're imagining.

Consider this: the highest-paid player in the NFL right now is Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. Dak's salary for the 2025 season is $60 million. Back in the 1970s, another Cowboys quarterback—Roger Staubach—was also the superstar face of the Cowboys.

In January 1972, Roger Staubach led the Dallas Cowboys to their first Super Bowl victory. Over the course of his career, he guided the team to four Super Bowl appearances and two NFC Championships, won two Super Bowls, earned Super Bowl VI MVP honors, was named The Sporting News Player of the Year and NFC Player of the Year in 1971, and made six Pro Bowl appearances. Oh, and he also popularized the "Hail Mary" pass.

By these standards, you might assume Roger was compensated at the highest levels imaginable for a professional athlete and superstar celebrity at the time. But that's not the case. When Roger's seasons ended, he hung up his helmet, put on a suit, and went to work at his OTHER job. Because he had to…

From Vietnam to Super Bowl Star

Roger Staubach was born on February 5, 1942, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up in Silverton, Ohio, attended Purcell High, then spent a year at the New Mexico Military Institute before entering the U.S. Naval Academy. Roger won the 1963 Heisman Trophy in his junior year while playing for the Navy Midshipmen. After college, Staubach did his mandatory four years of active duty, including a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam. Roger had actually been drafted by the Cowboys in 1964, his junior year at the Naval Academy. So finally, when his military commitments were satisfied in 1969, he was able to join the NFL as a 27-year-old rookie.

But here's the thing. Roger wasn't a typical rookie, like you may be picturing. By the time he joined the Cowboys in 1969, Staubach had been married four years and was already a father of three. Roger married his wife, Marianne, in September 1965, just four months after he graduated from the Naval Academy. They would eventually have five children (and dozens of grandchildren and several great-grandchildren).

Roger's rookie salary in 1969? $25,000.

Roger served as backup quarterback to Craig Morton for his first two seasons. A few games into the 1971 season, Morton was benched after a loss to the New Orleans Saints. Staubach and Morton alternated for a few games until week eight, when legendary Dallas coach Tom Landry made a decision that would alter the course of Dallas Cowboys history: He officially made Roger Staubach the team's starting quarterback. Roger proceeded to lead the Cowboys to 10-straight wins, including a victory over the Miami Dolphins at Super Bowl VI in January 1972. It was Dallas' first Super Bowl win.

Salary Bump

Striking while the iron was hot, two months later, Roger negotiated a three-year contract with the Cowboys that bumped his salary to $75,000 per year. That's the same as around $582,000 per year in today's dollars. He negotiated the salary himself to save money. In an interview after the deal was announced, Roger also announced he was not going to do any more work or workouts for the team during the off-season:

"I've got a long future ahead, and I don't saturate myself with off-season appearances. It can hurt you as an athlete. I've begun working out, and by May I'll be going five days a week. I plan to do a lot more study in the off-season than I did last year."

And while his desire to avoid burnout may have been sincere, there was another reason he was skipping team workouts that spring: Roger may not have been able to get the time off approved by his boss at his OTHER job.

Roger Staubach in 1978 (Photo by James Drake/Getty Images)

From Star Quarterback To Real Estate Rookie

Despite being a superstar NFL quarterback, after his first season ended, Roger realized he needed a second job to make ends meet. Through a fellow Naval Academy graduate, he landed an entry-level job at the Henry S. Miller Company, one of the most respected commercial real estate firms in Dallas. Henry Miller himself took an interest in the young quarterback and offered him a flexible position in the company's insurance division. The setup was ideal: Roger could work mornings on commission, then report to team workouts in the afternoons.

He didn't treat the job as a novelty or a PR stunt. He treated it like another playbook to master. Staubach earned his real estate license, learned how to analyze leases, and absorbed every detail of the business from seasoned brokers.

For six off-seasons, Staubach studied the commercial real estate market from the inside. He watched how deals were structured and noticed something odd: nearly every brokerage in Dallas represented landlords. Brokers would only show clients the spaces listed by their own firm — even if better options existed elsewhere. Staubach thought that made no sense. Why not represent the tenant instead, the actual company looking for space, and show them every available property?

That question — simple, logical, and disruptive — became the seed of his empire. Staubach realized that by representing corporate tenants instead of landlords, he could eliminate conflicts of interest and deliver more value. It was an entirely different way of thinking about commercial real estate. In the early 1970s, almost nobody was doing it.

Turning Down A Fortune

The Cowboys won their second Super Bowl in 1978. The following season, Roger led the Cowboys to their FIFTH Super Bowl appearance. Unfortunately, at Super Bowl XIII, the Cowboys ended up losing to Terry Bradshaw's Pittsburgh Steelers.

When the season ended, Staubach faced a decision that would change his life. After a decade of earning comparatively modest salaries, the Cowboys were finally prepared to pay him like the superstar he was. The team offered a two-year, $750,000 contract extension, AKA $375,000 per year. That's the same as around $1.7 million in today's dollars. At the time, that was nearly six times higher than the league's average salary.

Roger turned them down.

He was 37 years old, still at the top of his game, but ready for the next chapter. While many athletes struggled to imagine life after football, Staubach had already been preparing for years. He'd spent six off-seasons mastering real estate, earning his license, and developing a new business model. He'd found something he loved every bit as much as the game — and something that, in time, would make him far wealthier than any NFL contract ever could. And his new venture was already underway…

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The Staubach Company

Two years earlier, in 1977, Roger Staubach had quietly launched his own commercial real estate firm. He called it The Staubach Company, and its focus was as simple as it was revolutionary: represent the tenant, not the landlord. He started with just a few employees, a small Dallas office, and the lessons he'd learned from six years under Henry S. Miller.

When Roger officially retired from football in 1979, he shifted his full attention to the company. He was 37 years old, a two-time Super Bowl champion, and a national icon — but in business, he was starting over from scratch. His first clients included companies like Commercial Metals and Steak & Ale, both of which needed help finding new office or industrial space. Staubach's approach stood out immediately. Rather than steering clients toward buildings listed by his firm, he analyzed the entire market and negotiated the best deal for the tenant — even if it meant leasing space from a competitor.

That kind of transparency was almost unheard of in the industry at the time, but it quickly earned him a reputation for integrity and results. The same qualities that defined him as a quarterback — preparation, teamwork, and trust — became the foundation of his company's culture.

By the mid-1980s, The Staubach Company had become one of Texas's most respected real estate firms. Roger expanded carefully, building regional offices and giving local leaders equity stakes in their territories. That ownership model created a team mentality across the business and ensured everyone had skin in the game. "You can have ownership," Staubach often told his partners, "but you also have to take care of profits and losses."

In 1986, he teamed up with Dallas broker Chris Maguire to form Staubach Retail Services, extending his tenant-first philosophy into the retail sector. Nearly a decade later, they launched Cypress Equities, a development and investment arm that built shopping centers and mixed-use projects nationwide.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, The Staubach Company expanded into dozens of markets across North America. By 2007, the firm employed roughly 1,500 people in 70 offices and was handling more than $28 billion in transactions annually.

Not bad for a guy who once worked part-time in the off-season just to support his family.

The $650 Million Sale

By the mid-2000s, The Staubach Company had become a national powerhouse. Its corporate clients — including AT&T, McDonald's, and Kmart — relied on Staubach's team to handle everything from site selection to complex lease negotiations. But as more clients expanded overseas, the company needed a global footprint to keep up. Roger knew that to continue growing, he'd have to partner with a larger firm.

In 2008, he agreed to merge The Staubach Company with Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), one of the biggest real estate services companies in the world. The deal was structured as a multi-year buyout valued at roughly $650 million.

Sharing The Windfall

For most entrepreneurs, that kind of sale would be the ultimate cash-out. But in typical Staubach fashion, he made sure the rewards were shared. Thanks to his ownership model, more than 300 employees held equity in the firm when the sale closed. Each of them received a portion of the payout — in some cases, life-changing sums. Staubach reportedly distributed up to 88% of the company's stock to partners and key employees over the years, keeping only a modest portion for himself.

Staubach stayed on with JLL as Executive Chairman of the Americas to help integrate the two businesses and maintain client relationships. His leadership and network proved invaluable. Between 2008 and 2013, he reportedly earned around $10–12 million per year in salary and bonuses.

Under his guidance, the merged company continued to thrive. But by then, Roger had already achieved what few athletes ever have: he'd built a post-sports career that dwarfed his playing days, financially and professionally.

After stepping down from JLL in 2018, Roger Staubach didn't exactly retire to a quiet life. He became an advisor to Staubach Capital, a Dallas-based investment firm run by his daughter and son that focuses on real estate and private equity deals. He remains active in philanthropic and civic causes, supporting veterans' organizations, education programs, and youth sports initiatives. His lifelong sense of service — first to his country, then to his team, and finally to his business partners — has defined every chapter of his life.

For a man who once made $25,000 as an NFL rookie, turning that into a $650 million empire wasn't just success — it was one of the greatest second acts in sports history.