Drew Brees was in the water with great white sharks off the South African coast a couple of years ago, and dove near Australia's Great Barrier Reef one offseason.

Yet the fear of injury precludes the Pro Bowl quarterback from doing everything on his wish list, including downhill skiing and skydiving.

"You've got to live life, but then again you have a small window to achieve something not everybody gets a chance to do by playing in the NFL," said the quarterback.

The standard NFL contract prohibits players from engaging in potentially dangerous activities.

I donated a copy of the standard NFL contract to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1970 and it was displayed at the shrine in Canton, Ohio. With that in mind, I'm going to take you inside the the NFL contract and just about everything you'd want to know -- from how and when players are paid to the impact of any injury and a team's ability to restrict a player's outside activities -- is covered.

Next to Sunday, Friday is probably every NFL player's favorite day -- payday. But because players are paid every other week and only during regular season, there are only nine paydays per season. On eight of those, players get paid for two weeks. On one, they are paid for one week.

When I was with the Saints, business manager Eddie Jones handed out paychecks to the players on charter flights to road games. Jones later became president of the Dolphins before retiring three years ago. He lives across the lake.

Every player on the roster gets paid, even if he doesn't play.

Just like everybody else, players have deductions taken from their paychecks. The government takes its share, of course, and there are subtractions for insurance and benefits plans. Still, the checks can be quite sizeable. Our quarterback in 1967, Billy Kilmer, made $27,500 his first season with the Saints. Head coach Tom Fears earned $35.000.

If today's Saints player earns $3 million in base salary, that means each two-game paycheck will be a gross of $176,470.58.

Players do have the option of having their salary doled out over the course of the entire calendar year. Not many take this option.

If a player goes down with a season-ending injury, the paychecks keep coming  if he was injured in the line of duty in a game, a practice, even in the workout room. The standard player contract calls for all injured players, even those on injured reserve, to be paid in full through the end of the season in which they are injured. They will be paid as long as they are part of the team and under contract.

Players injured during training camp continued to be compensated as well, but such a player who is subsequently released can file a grievance against the club with the Players Association, up to 25 days from the termination date. To avoid a months-long-grievance process, teams  often reach injury settlements with players injured during training camp.

The signing bonus is arguably the most important part of the contract because the money is guaranteed. Unless the player runs afoul of the law or breaks the contract terms in some way, that money is theirs to keep, even if they never play a down in the league. It is also just one of several forms of guaranteed payouts players receive.

Others include the "roster" bonus, which calls for the player to be paid a specified amount if he is on a roster on a specific day, and a "workout" bonus, which calls for the player to be paid a specific amount if he works out with the team for a certain number of days during the offseason.

Finally, there are incentive bonuses, paid to players for reaching specific performance goals based on playing time and statistical achievements.

Players on the road are treated just like any other person traveling for business. That means everything from hotel rooms to transportation is provided by the employer. As you might expect, most NFL teams stay in the best hotels. The team cover that, but when it comes to incidentals, such as a beer in the lounge or an in-room movie, that's on the players. When I was with the Saints, the players weren't allowed to drink the main hotel lounge because the team didn't want the players and coaches in the same bar.

Transportation costs to and from the airport, hotel and stadium are covered, too. Any meals not provided by the club are paid for via a per-diem system. For 2008, the per-diem rates are $18 for breakfast, $27 for lunch and $45 for dinner. Meals served on team-chartered flights are not considered to be furnished by the team.

When an NFL player signs a contract, he often signs away some of his freedom. For example, Paragraph 3 of the stand player  contract prohibits NFL players from playing football or participating in activities other than football that present a significant risk of personal injury.

Paragraphs 2 and 15 require NFL players to always conduct themselves in a way that shows they are in recognition "of the fact that the success of professional football depends largely on public respect for an approval of those associated with the game."

Finally, Paragraph 4 grants the league, the player's union and the player's club "the authority to use the player's name and picture for publicity and the promotion of NFL Football."

SOME HITHER, OTHERS YON: The Saints wanted to improve their pass rush this season, but they have already gone through eight defensive tackles thus so far. Three of he six tackles currently on the roster: Hollis Thomas, Brian Young and Sedrick Ellis didn't practice on Tuesday. Thomas has a torn triceps muscle that is expected to sideline him until mid-October, Young has been ailing most of camp by knee and foot problems, and the team's first-round draft choice has a bruised ankle. Fifth-round draft choice DeMario Pressley is on injured reserve after suffering a foot fracture. The tea, brought in two tackles to fill in, James Reed and Tim McGill, and they are injured and no longer available. Only veterans Kendrick Clancy and Antwan Lake are available to practice. Ellis could be available to play on Saturday at Cincinnati. The Saints are dangerously thin at that position although Clancy has started 32 games in his first eight NFL seasons while Lakes has started 12 times in 68 career games...

Will the NFL's two-time MVP be on the field when the Colts open the regular season on Sept. 7 against the Chicago Bears? "That's my goal, to be ready for the first game," said Peyton Manning, recovering from minor knee surgery. "Hopefully it (knee) continues to progress up until that point. I've had a tough month. It's truly been a challenge for me, certainly something totally different than I've ever had to experience. Just constant rehab."...The Advocate's Scott Rabalais will begin working for a new ESPN-affiliated Web site covering LSU called TigerGumbo.com on Friday. He also has a new book coming out next month on Tigers football called "The Fighting Tigers, 1993-2008," a sequel to the superb history of LSU's first 100 years done by The Times-Picayune columnist Peter Finney...The misadventures of Joe McKnight continue with the USC running back from John Curtis. He spent Sunday night's practice watching from a golf cart, wearing a near full-length brace on his right arm. The LA Times reported McKnight suffered a hyperextended elbow in a scrimmage the night before. His latest mishap came only a few days after he injured two fingers, including a fracture on the tip of one, when a teammate slammed a dormitory door on his hand. McKnight sat out parts of two other practices because of jock itch...My time is up. Ed Staton can be reached at edcoachstaton@yahoo.com.