For The Love of the Game
The Original NFL Training Camp Experience
The 2025 NFL season is upon us, and compared to my playing time in the 1970s, I can hardly believe how far we’ve come.
When I was drafted, we put every fiber of our being into training camp. A lot of people don’t know that, back then, training camp was nearly twice as long. And even still, we would only have a small chance of actually playing in a regular season game. The real kicker: the salaries we competed for. They were a mere fraction of what players are getting today. But for the love of the game, I clawed my way through.
In 1973, I was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the seventh round (160th overall) as a linebacker and special teams player.
All 22 free agents & draft picks were invited to Miami for a weekend of workouts and conditioning. We sat silently in the Dolphins’ conference room with anxious but hopeful anticipation.
Then, the man, the coach, the legend, Don Shula, walked into the room. After some brief remarks, he distributed that weekend’s workout schedule. As we reviewed the schedule, I could see that some of the hope the others carried was starting to leave them.
Before ending the meeting, Coach Shula walked up to the podium and gave the following exhortation: “There are 22 of you in this room vying for a position on my team. We will only have three openings on the roster. I am a big believer that you leave the dance with the girl that you came with, so… the odds are very small that you will make this team. With that being said, if you want to leave here tonight, please do! Don’t waste your time – or my time!”
Two guys got up and left that night.
At camp, practices began at 7 AM. Under Florida’s 90+ degree heat, we had a grueling two and a half hours in the morning, and two and a half more in the afternoon. Best of all, no water breaks were allowed on the field. In the first week alone, twelve more guys left camp! After ten more weeks of pure torture, I emerged victorious. I was on all of the special team’s rosters for the first game of the season. Quarterback Don Strock and wide receiver Bo Rather took the other two slots. That made us the chosen three from the camp.
On the last Friday before the opening regular season game, Coach Shula summoned me to his office. As I approached, my anxiety kicked in, just as it had on the first day of camp. What did I do wrong – violate a team rule, bad news from home – who knows?
Well, it turned out that Joe Paterno, head coach of Penn State, made a call that morning. Paterno insisted that his All-American, Jets 2nd round pick, Bruce Bannon, should take a spot on the Dolphins’ roster that year. In Paterno’s vision, he saw Bannon as the perfect backup for Bob Matheson, the only edge rusher in the league. Both Bannon and Matheson stood just shy of 6’4” and 240lbs, and together would be a force to be reckoned with.
But all I could hear was this: I was being cut. My head dropped, defeated. At the sight of this, Shula jumped out of his chair. He said, “Hey, look at me. Pick your chin up. You didn’t get cut from the Phoenixville Minor League team; you got released from the Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins. Trust me, you’ll be playing within two weeks.”
You know what? He was right. I hooked up with none other than the Philadelphia Eagles, where I played two seasons before getting traded to the New England Patriots. (Footnote: I played with the Patriots before they started cheating!)
Oh, but I’m sure you want to know what our salaries looked like: Roman Gabriel, $75 thousand; Bill Bergey, $55 thousand; and Kevin Reilly, $17.5 thousand. Things sure have changed over the last 50 years, and I’m proud! I shout from the bottom of my heart, “GO BIRDS!” because I still see them out there, giving their all for the love of the game.
