A few days after the NFL draft in late November of 1959, Cardinals executive Bill Bidwill flew to Salt Lake City to see if he could sign the team’s seventh-round pick, a skinny running back and defensive back out of Utah.
Bidwill offered Larry Wilson a contract that included a $7,500 salary, including a $500 advance. The next day, the Buffalo Bills, the AFL team that had drafted Wilson, matched that salary offer, but declined to pay anything up front.
So for $500, Wilson became a Cardinal.
It might have been the best money Bidwill ever spent.