Here’s How Much Eagles And Pats Players Will Owe In Taxes After Super Bowl 52 In Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - FEBRUARY 04:  Tom Brady #12 of the New England Patriots reacts after fumbling the ball during the fourth quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots 41-33.

Getty Image / Rob Carr


The Eagles have finally gotten that chip off of their shoulder! That means the NFC East is the first division in the NFL in which every team has won a Super Bowl at some point in franchise history. There’s at least one team in every other conference which has yet to win it all. But I digress, we’re here to talk about taxes.

NFL players get paid extra for making and winning the Super Bowl. This year, the NFL paid out an additional $112,000 bonus to each player on the winning team (Eagles) and $56,000 to the losing team (Patriots). The Super Bowl is arguably the most expensive sporting event in the world. Gronk invited 69 family members to Super Bowl LII. So it’s possible that this bonus barely covers travel expenses for some athletes.

Taxes for pro athletes are weird. Everyone pays taxes in the states where they work. So in the case of pro athletes who travel to a bunch of different states each year to play games, they have to pay taxes in each of those states. Minnesota has a brutal state tax at 9.85%. So how much will most NFL players pay? Well, most of them are actually working in the state of Minnesota for well over a week and not just during Super Bowl 52. Most NFL athletes are also all in the top marginal tax bracket (over $500K) with the average salary being around $1.9 million/year according to TIME:

Robert Raiola, an accountant who works with athletes and entertainers, figures that NFL players on both the Eagles and the Patriots will end up having spent seven to eight days in the Gopher State this year, including practice and playing time, out of about 230 that they’ll work all year. That works out to about 3% of their total working time.
That 3% will then be applied to their entire NFL salary, with the resulting total taxed at Minnesota’s hefty 9.85% rate. (Other states also tax players for their share of the time players spent in those states.)
The upshot is a tax bill that can look hefty compared to the modest (for pro sports) prize money involved. Raiola estimates that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who is expected to earn $15 million this year, could end up owing Minnesota roughly $43,000 — despite Sunday’s loss. (via)

When you look at those numbers it seems like the NFL dishes out these bonuses just to supplement travel for the players. Without those bonuses, rookies who are getting paid well but still have a lot of their money owed to agents and tied up in early investments probably wouldn’t be able to pick up the bill for their families to travel to the Super Bowl, not when a Diet Coke is $32 at the game and an alcoholic punch drink is $50. Hotel rooms are asininely expensive. Flights were impossible to come by and outrageously expensive even though most of the ballers flying in took private jets.

The losing team’s players spending $43,000 in taxes just to play in the Super Bowl seems pretty crazy but that’s also on the highest end (Tom Brady gets PAID). So if you want to look up the numbers for your favorite player(s) you just need to apply the 9.85% Minnesota rate to 3% of the player’s annual salary and you can figure out how much they’ll have to pay the state for playing in Super Bowl 52.

(h/t TIME)