Winning a Super Bowl is what every football player grows up dreaming about. Seven-time champion Tom Brady once famously argued that it’s also the one game that defines a career. “You’ll be able to tell these stories forever. This is why we play the game… It’s about a legacy. Our own names on the back of our jerseys that will be remembered forever,” he said.
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What makes winning the Super Bowl even more special is that, along with the trophy, the rings, and the memories, it also comes with a serious cash reward.
For Super Bowl LX, every player on the winning team is set to take home $178,000. That money comes straight from the NFL’s postseason payout system and is paid on top of players’ regular salaries. Notably, this year’s payout is a $7,000 increase from last year and the highest Super Bowl winner’s bonus the league has ever handed out. And impressively enough, even the players who lose aren’t walking away empty-handed.
For the first time in league history, players on the losing team will be earning $103,000 each. That’s also up by $7,000 from last season, and it marks the first time Super Bowl runners-up are getting a six-figure check.
This bonus, however, is only one part of the postseason pay. A player whose team starts in the Wild Card round and goes all the way to winning the Super Bowl can make as much as $376,000 in total playoff bonuses during the season.
For star players with massive contracts, this money might feel small. Some quarterbacks, like Seahawks QB Sam Darnold, for example, can earn nearly an extra million dollars by winning a single Super Bowl due to the incentive structure. But for players on minimum or rookie deals, an extra six-figure payout can be life-changing.
The monetary earnings don’t stop here, though, because the Super Bowl also brings continuous money after winning it. Every player gets a championship ring that can be worth anywhere between $35,000 to $50,000. There’s the victory parade too, the White House visit, and a big jump in endorsements that often follows a title win.
The payouts have come a long way, to say the least. Back in 1967, players who won the very first Super Bowl earned just $15,000. Even adjusted for inflation, today’s players are still making more than any generation before them.
Even when you compare it to other sports, the difference is clear. In the United States, an Olympic gold medalist earns $37,500 for winning. As one can make it, a Super Bowl champion makes nearly five times that for one game.
That said, in a league where 32 teams and 1,600-plus players grind through an entire season, only one thing truly separates them: winning the Super Bowl. Being crowned champions above everyone else should, in theory, matter more than the money that comes with lifting the Lombardi Trophy. Why, so?
Because winning the Lombardi is the only way to fulfill the childhood dream, stamp your name in history, and confirm the fact that you reached the very top of the sport. And no amount of money can give you that feeling.
