This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
At first, Utah Blaze lineman John Culp thought it was someone's idea of a sick joke, sort of a twisted prank to welcome him to his offseason job as an undertaker for the York County (S.C.) Coroner's Office.
The deceased man was huge, even bigger than the 6-foot-4, 285-pound Culp, a one-time University of Kansas star in his second season with Utah's Arena Football League franchise.
Problem was, the man had been
dead for several days, and his massive body had started to decompose. The odor was unbearable.
"He was just sitting there, and I was like, 'Oh my god, I have to touch him,' " Culp said.
Not only that, Culp had to lift the man into a body bag, zip it shut and transport it back to headquarters in Rock Hill, S.C.
Welcome to the working life, buddy.
"That was my first case, and it was the biggest guy I had ever seen," Culp said. "He was just a mess everywhere. I felt like my mother [who got him the job] had set me up or something."
Culp says he got used to the job and he would keep his eye on the news in anticipation of when he'd get another call - and get paid - to come pick up a recently deceased.
"I might go back to it," he said. "It was easy work, if you can deal with looking at it. I mean, I don't go in there with bare hands and just touch the thing and all that. I had gloves and masks and things like that."
Still, it is work - something Culp's peers in the National Football League would never dream of doing.
But the AFL is not the NFL, especially when it comes to paychecks. While the average annual NFL salary in 2006 was $1.4 million, the average AFL player makes $42,000 a year. Culp, who has worked his way up from the Indoor Football League to af2 to the AFL, the highest level of arena football, makes closer to the minimum, or around $30,000.
Utah's highest-paid player is Siaha Burley, who makes around $95,000 a season, not counting incentives. Quarterback Joe Germaine and linebacker Frank Carter are Utah's other designated "franchise players" and are paid well above the league average.
AFL teams such as the Blaze pay for housing costs during the season, however. Culp and his Blaze teammates and their families live in an upscale, furnished apartment complex in West Jordan near the Jordan Landing commercial center from February until the season ends in June or July.
"Most guys have to work," Culp said. "You are thankful for the work, too. A lot of employers aren't willing to give a job to a guy who is going to be gone six months out of the year."
That's why perhaps the two most common offseason jobs in the AFL are substitute schoolteacher and personal trainer, although the league does not track the trend.
The Blaze ask players what they do in the offseason in a preseason questionnaire to help them prepare a media guide, but an answer is not required. Coach Danny White, a veteran of 15 AFL seasons, said the standard AFL contract does not set limits on offseason employment.
"We could have guys out riding in rodeos and jumping from airplanes, for all I know," he said.
Blaze lineman Hans Olsen, who played in the NFL for three years before joining the AFL's Indiana Firebirds in 2004, said he has heard of many different jobs AFL players have performed to make money in the offseason - a part of life NFL players don't have to deal with.
"The money and the lifestyle - it's like night and day," he said.
Blaze receiver Tom Pace once ran a swimming pool-cleaning business in his hometown of Mesa, Ariz. Olsen stays visible in the offseason in Utah as a part-time radio and television broadcaster for KSL-TV and 1280 AM The Zone.
Many stayed involved in football. Quarterback Joe Germaine helped coach a high school team in Arizona to the state semifinals last fall, while lineman Rob Gatrell helps at Santa Rosa (Calif.) Junior College, works on his master's degree and does some substitute teaching.
But when the Blaze players get together to swap offseason stories, nobody tops Culp.
"I had the whole county," he said. "Sad to say, but they pay by the body, so you sit around, waiting for someone to die. When it happens, you are like, 'Oh yeah, I get paid to go get it.' They are on the ground, passed out and dead, but after a while, it is just a job, just something you do to make a living."
The average Arena Football League player makes about $40,000 for a five- to six-month season, meaning most have to work in the offseason to support themselves and their families. Here's what Utah Blaze players do or have done in the offseason to make a living:
Player Pos. Offseason
Joe Germaine QB High school football coach
Hans Olsen L Radio and TV broadcaster
Aaron Boone WR Financial consultant/realtor
Rob Gatrell L Santa Rosa J.C. football coach
Kautai Olevao LB/FB Foster Youth program director
Tom Pace WR Rock band member, realtor
Chris Janek L Personal trainer/teacher
Justin Skaggs WR/LB Contractor, home builder
Chris Robinson FB/LB Athletic trainer
J'Sharlon Jones DB Self-employed/real estate-PR
Jason Gesser QB High school football coach
Orshawante Bryant DB Electrician
Steve Konopka LB Trainer/business owner
Steve Videtich K Handyman/carpenter
Travis Cole QB Athletic trainer
Siaha Burley WR Personal trainer
Garrett Smith L Automobile restoration
Jonathan Culp L Undertaker, York County, S.C.