How Much Do Super Bowl Losers Get Paid? It's a Winning Number
Published Feb. 9 2024, 11:22 a.m. ET
Making it to the Super Bowl is a very big deal. And yet, one team will walk away the winner of the biggest NFL matchup of the year, while the other will lose.
Fans may wonder what a loss means for players' bottom lines, and not just their egos.
Well, we already know that professional football players make a ton of money. Consider that the minimum salary for an NFL player is a whopping $750,000. The league's celebrity players make multi-millions.
All players get paid when their team makes it to a playoff game. The pay increases as they advance through the playoffs and tops out at the Super Bowl.
But how much do Super Bowl losers get paid versus what they make when they win? Well, it's still a lot.
So, how much do Super Bowl losers get paid?
Every player who participates in the divisional playoffs in the 2023–2024 season made $46,500 — in addition to their already massive salaries.
Per Bet MGM, the four teams that make the conference champions, which determine who will go to the Super Bowl, take home $69,000 per player, and that's whether they win or lose!
Just playing in the Super Bowl will net each player a minimum of an $82,000 bonus. And that is if you lose the game!
On the flip side, a player on the winning team walks away with a bonus of nearly twice that amount: $157,000.
So let's do the math here. If you make it to the Super Bowl and lose, you still get a bonus of about $150,000. Not too shabby, right?
And remember, that massive figure is in addition to the bare minimum salary for an NFL player of three-quarters of a million bucks. We'd call that winning!
Star players can make even more money for winning the Super Bowl.
Depending on your level of stardom, players may structure deals that net them even more money if they win the Super Bowl. For example, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes's deal includes a payout of $1.25 million if he bests the San Francisco 49ers on Super Bowl Sunday 2024.
In contrast, San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy's deal isn't nearly as sweet. He'll make the same bonus as his teammates if he manages to outplay Patrick and his high-profile team on Feb. 11, per USA Today.
No matter who wins or loses, the exposure alone will likely result in huge endorsement deals that stand to balloon players' bank accounts to sky-high amounts.
The Chiefs won the big game in 2023 and Patrick is one of the highest-paid players in the league. He secured a contract to the tune of $45 million in 2023 and has landed endless commercials.
Travis Kelce also managed to snag the most famous woman in the world as his girlfriend — and has a net worth of $40 million.
In contrast, even Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles still has a huge net worth of $30 million and his team lost the Super Bowl in 2023. Not too bad, right?
