For the most part, they have not been getting paid. They are often getting travel and appearance fees from the teams and meal reimbursements, etc. Plus, they can now get money from Nike and other endorsements. They will get a signing bonus for signing and then they will get all their salary spread out over each game check. Then playoff appearance money comes from the league, and some of them will have bonuses in their contract for end of season awards or performance benchmarks.