The Kansas City Chiefs were the talk of the 2023 NFL season with Taylor Swift in the stands and the team winning a second straight Super Bowl. The buzz and the title were a boon to the bank accounts of the Chiefs’ two biggest stars.
Patrick Mahomes earned $3.6 million in group licensing and marketing revenue in the 12 months through February, according to the NFL Players Association’s annual report filed this week with the U.S. Department of Labor. The number of NFL players was up 53% from the previous year, when the Chiefs also won the Super Bowl.
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The licensing revenue of Swift’s friend, Travis Kelce, rose 177% to $2.4 million and ranked fourth among NFL players, behind Mahomes and quarterbacks Jalen Hurts ($2.7 million) and Josh Allen ($2.5 million).
Revenue comes from all group licensing agreements, including those for multiple players negotiated through the NFLPA, such as video games, jerseys and trading cards. Players are paid royalties based on sales of items such as jerseys.
Nearly every NFL player received at least $32,000 from the PA.
In addition to the PA royalty check, Mahomes earns more than $20 million a year from his nearly two dozen endorsement partners, including Adidas, Coors Light, State Farm and Subway. Last year he added BOSS, T-Mobile and Walmart. His latest venture is a “good for you” coffee brand, Throne Coffee, which launched two weeks ago and has Mahomes as its second-largest investor.
Many of the entries in the LM-2 report show LLCs registered by players: Kelce is TMK Enterprises LLC and Mahomes is 2PM LLC. Most are easy to decipher or identify from company documents, but… Sportico was unable to determine the players ranked fifth and sixth, which are listed as MMBOC LLC ($2.3 million) and SACC 1of1 LLC ($2.2 million).
It is not only current players who benefit from group licensing. Peyton Manning ranked seventh overall with $2.1 million, double his earnings from last year. Rob Gronkowski finished 10th with $1.9 million, just a touch behind Joe Burrow.
Tom Brady has regularly been the top earner from licenses, including $9.5 million and $6.8 million in the past two years, but TEB Capital Management received a fraction of last year’s payouts with just $651,938.
The stars of the San Francisco 49ers also benefited from their participation in the Super Bowl. Running back Christian McCaffrey earned $1.7 million — more than three times what he earned the year before, when he was traded from Carolina midseason — and finished 12th overall. Quarterback Brock Purdy pocketed $710,619, ten times what he earned the year before and 82% of Mr. Irrelevant’s $870,000 salary from the 2022 NFL Draft. Tight end George Kittle earned $1.6 million.
Aaron Rodgers lasted just four regular season appearances with the New York Jets before tearing his Achilles tendon, but fans still gobbled up his merchandise, netting the four-time MVP $1.6 million. TJ Watt ($808,103) topped his brother JJ ($743,849) by a narrow margin, while the Diggs brothers had Stefon ($562,774) over Trevon ($467,754).
Twenty-two players received at least $1 million in royalties, with Aidan Hutchinson missing the seven-figure mark by just $7,680. Twenty players earned at least $1 million during the 2022 season, led by Brady.
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