Super Bowl 49 is a thing of the past, and along with the knowledge that they're the best team in the league, a Lombardi Trophy for their team and a nifty Super Bowl ring, each player on the New England Patriots also will be taking home a healthy bonus for winning the big game.
Super Bowl 2015: For winning, Patriots players earn $97,000
Both the Seahawks and the Patriots were paid for playing in the Super Bowl, but the Patriots wound up with more in the end.
Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Every player on the 53-man roster of a playoff team actually gets bonuses throughout each round of the postseason. The amount received for being on the winning team in the Super Bowl has steadily increased over the years, and this time around it comes in the form of a cool $97,000 check.
The Seattle Seahawks, as the losers, still get a nice check in the amount of $49,000 for their troubles. These numbers generally pale in comparison to their actual contracts — game checks for the league's top paid players can be north of $1 million per game — but it's not exactly an insignificant number.
On top of these Super Bowl checks, both teams received bonuses for playing in the conference championship games — checks of $44,000 — and divisional round games — checks of $24,000. There are also bonuses for playing in the wild card round ($22,000 for wild card teams, $24,000 for division winners who play in the wild card round) but neither the Seahawks nor the Patriots played that round as the top seeds. The thinking here is that the extra rest and first round bye is reward enough.
This means that, in total, Seattle’s players walked away with $117,000 in bonus money for the playoffs, while New England’s players ended up with $165,000 in total. Not a bad few weeks of work.
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