Players on the winning team Sunday will pick up an extra $178,000. That’s a nice chunk of change, but it seems like they should be getting more – a lot more.
Bonuses are 4 times higher than they were 30 years ago (when winners were getting $42,000) but there’s a lot more money in the game today. In those same 30 years, the salary cap has more than septupled. (The current salary cap of $279.2 million is 7.5 times more than $37.1 million it was for the 1995 season).
Super Bowl ads this year are $8 million for half a minute. So the player bonuses for those 53 winning players can be covered with 35 seconds worth of advertising.
If player bonuses were growing at the same rate as the salary cap, They would be getting about twice as much -- $338,835 per man.
| SUPER BONUSES VS. SALARY CAP | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Super Bowl | Salary Cap | Pct |
| 1994 | $42,000 | $34,608,000 | .12% |
| 1995 | $42,000 | $37,100,000 | .11% |
| 1996 | $48,000 | $40,753,000 | .12% |
| 1997 | $48,000 | $41,454,000 | .12% |
| 1998 | $53,000 | $52,388,000 | .10% |
| 1999 | $58,000 | $57,288,000 | .10% |
| 2000 | $58,000 | $62,172,000 | .09% |
| 2001 | $63,000 | $67,405,000 | .09% |
| 2002 | $63,000 | $71,101,000 | .09% |
| 2003 | $68,000 | $75,001,000 | .09% |
| 2004 | $68,000 | $80,582,000 | .08% |
| 2005 | $73,000 | $85,500,000 | .09% |
| 2006 | $73,000 | $102,000,000 | .07% |
| 2007 | $78,000 | $109,000,000 | .07% |
| 2008 | $78,000 | $116,000,000 | .07% |
| 2009 | $83,000 | $123,000,000 | .07% |
| 2010 | $83,000 | uncapped | -- |
| 2011 | $88,000 | $120,375,000 | .07% |
| 2012 | $88,000 | $120,600,000 | .07% |
| 2013 | $92,000 | $123,600,000 | .07% |
| 2014 | $97,000 | $133,000,000 | .07% |
| 2015 | $102,000 | $143,280,000 | .07% |
| 2016 | $107,000 | $155,270,000 | .07% |
| 2017 | $112,000 | $167,000,000 | .07% |
| 2018 | $118,000 | $177,200,000 | .07% |
| 2019 | $124,000 | $188,200,000 | .07% |
| 2020 | $130,000 | $198,200,000 | .07% |
| 2021 | $150,000 | $182,500,000 | .08% |
| 2022 | $157,000 | $208,200,000 | .08% |
| 2023 | $164,000 | $224,800,000 | .07% |
| 2024 | $171,000 | $255,400,000 | .07% |
| 2025 | $178,000 | $279,200,000 | .06% |
—Ian Allan
