The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers will play for Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.
In addition to bringing home the coveted Vince Lombardi trophy, the players from the winning team will each earn a six-figure bonus check: $124,000. That's according to the 2011 collective bargaining agreement the NFL signed with the NFL Players Association, which will be in effect until the 2020 season.
Both the Chiefs and the 49ers have already earned $87,000 per player in postseason play. That number includes $31,000 for winning the divisional playoff round and $56,000 for the conference championship. Each winner could go home with a total of $211,000 in bonus pay.
Players on the losing team will receive $62,000 for making it to the final game, putting their total at $149,000.
Postseason pay is egalitarian, meaning the starters, backups, and injured players all earn the same amount, as long as they've spent a certain number of games on their team's active or inactive list.
Players who were traded at some point during the season and aren't on the team's active or inactive list at the time of the game can still earn a postseason bonus if they were on the list for at least eight games that season.
For example, during the 2017-2018 season, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo started with the New England Patriots and was traded mid-season to the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners didn't make the playoffs, but the Patriots did, and since Garoppolo was on the Patriots roster for eight games, he qualified for a postseason bonus. He earned $28,000 when the Patriots won the divisional round, $51,000 when they won the AFC championship game and another $56,000 when they lost in the Super Bowl, for a total of $135,000. Not bad for watching from the sidelines in SF. This year, of course, Garoppolo takes center stage as the starting quarterback for the 49ers.
For the highest-earners on the field, including Garoppolo, whose average annual salary is $27.5 million, the Super Bowl bonus feels like pocket change. But for the players earning $495,000, the league minimum, the $211,000 bonus would be roughly a 43% boost to their annual earnings.
Players will be paid within 15 days after the game has been played, the collective bargaining agreement notes.
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