Playoff March Includes a Sizable Payout
NASHVILLE – The ultimate payoff, of course, would be to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy and to be known henceforth as a Super Bowl champion.
Even if the Tennessee Titans don’t get to that point, each round of the playoffs has meant another payday.
Player contracts cover the 17 weeks of the NFL’s regular season. The postseason offers weekly bonuses that could earn each team member nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Sunday’s AFC Championship against Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium is worth $56,000 to each player.
That will nearly double what the Titans have made to this point. As members of a wild card team, they earned $28,000 apiece for their wild game, a 20-13 victory at New England. Patriots players made $31,000 in that one because they were part of a division winner.
The divisional playoff, a 28-12 victory at Baltimore, came with a $31,000 payment to each player.
If Tennessee wins at Kansas City, players will be guaranteed $177,000 this postseason with the opportunity to earn even more. As if winning the Super Bowl was not incentive enough, players on the victorious team earn $124,000 each while the loser gets half of that, $62,000 each.
Add it all up, and the maximum each Titans player could receive this postseason is $239,000. That is in addition to whatever they made for the regular season.
Tennessee is the only team that played on wild card weekend. If any of the other three win it all, they will make $211,000 per player.
Two years ago, the Titans made $26,000 apiece for their trip to Kansas City in the wild card round. That victory earned them an additional $28,000 each for the divisional round, a 35-14 loss at New England.
In 1999, when Tennessee started as a wild card and finished runner-up in one of the most memorable Super Bowls of all time, players earned a total of $92,000, capped by a $33,000 payday in Super Bowl XXXIV, a 23-16 loss to the St. Louis Rams.
