If the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs win the Super Bowl on Sunday, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the remainder of their teammates can have bragging rights because the Nationwide Soccer League (NFL)’s first three-peat winners. They’ll additionally bag a cool $171,000 for the sport, every.
Earlier than Philadelphia followers accuse the Chiefs of getting particular therapy, sure, Eagles gamers will earn the identical quantity if they win. And whichever staff leaves New Orleans with out the Lombardi Trophy will nonetheless get an honest comfort prize: A $96,000 paycheck per participant.
Tremendous Bowl contenders are receiving a greater pay increase than most People did this yr; the sport paycheck is about 4.3% increased for the winners than in 2024 and about 7.9% increased for the losers.
Nonetheless, these paychecks imply that many gamers, not simply the celebrities, could take a pay lower to get knocked round on the sector. And the quantities begin to look downright paltry, particularly contemplating how a lot cash is shelled out for all-things Tremendous Bowl every February. The worth of entry is steep, irrespective of the way you take part.
Whereas ticket sales plummeted within the week main as much as the Chiefs-Eagles matchup, the most affordable seats nonetheless value greater than $3,000. In the meantime, some corporations have reportedly spent $8 million or extra for 30-second spots that might be amongst a broad variety of ads taking part in throughout breaks within the motion. And People are projected to legally wager a file nearly $1.4 billion on the massive sport this yr.
How Postseason Paychecks are set
Whilst extra money might be shelled out forward of Sunday’s sport—from beer to snacks to new TVs to jerseys—the paychecks for the gamers gained’t budge. Slightly, the compensation charges for the profitable and dropping groups had been set again in March 2020 as a part of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Settlement, which is efficient by way of the 2030 season.
The way in which gamers are compensated for postseason motion is one of some key variations from the common season. Gamers are typically paid their annual wage on a weekly foundation over the course of the common 18-game season, however these paychecks cease as soon as the postseason begins.
As an alternative, the league specifies how a lot gamers are compensated for every of the playoff video games—win or lose—which ranged from $49,500 to $54,500 for this yr’s wild card and division playoff video games, then bumped as much as $77,000 for the convention championship video games. The league has as much as 15 days to pay gamers for every postseason sport.
All advised, the postseason quantities to greater than $350,000 in further compensation for gamers on this yr’s profitable Tremendous Bowl staff and $275,000-plus for these gamers on the dropping staff. And even gamers on the groups who don’t see any taking part in time are due a paycheck, as long as they’re on the official 53-player roster, energetic/inactive checklist or reserve/injured checklist.
The league’s billion-dollar enterprise
In the meantime, the NFL is on the hook to pay some $75 million-plus to the lots of of gamers throughout the 14 groups that had been within the playoffs this season, together with greater than $14 million to the Chiefs and Eagles gamers after Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl sport alone.
That will look like some huge cash, however it’s a small droplet in a kind of large Gatorade coolers. The NFL now generates greater than $20 billion in annual income and is on monitor to attain the $25 billion income aim that Commissioner Roger Gooddell focused by 2027.
With a lot cash flying round, the league’s present crop of stars are additionally cashing in. Mahomes, the Chiefs quarterback, signed a 10-year, $450 million contract again in 2020, which implies he earns a median annual wage of $45 million. Jalen Hurts, quarterback for the Eagles, signed a five-year, $255 million contract extension again in 2023, which sees him incomes an excellent increased average-annual wage of $51 million.
Because of their contracts, the quarterbacks may earn greater than $2.5 million every week of the common season—and that doesn’t embrace profitable endorsement offers.
Losers dropping out much less
In fact, for each Mahomes and Hurts, there are dozens of gamers who don’t share the limelight, nor these profitable paychecks. The league minimal is at the moment $795,000, so the postseason paychecks symbolize a fairly appreciable bonus for these gamers.
Whereas Tremendous Bowl winners get much more perks, together with the famously blingy ring, there’s an fascinating quirk to the Collective Bargaining Settlement: Tremendous Bowl losers are literally incomes the next share of the winner’s paycheck as time goes on. When the Chiefs misplaced the 2021 Tremendous Bowl, these gamers took residence precisely 50% of the pay of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gamers. By 2031, the dropping staff will earn about 67% of the profitable staff’s payout.
Seems, even the losers get fortunate generally.
