Have you ever wondered if professional athletes, such as those in the NFL, receive royalties from merchandise sales?
Shouldn’t they earn a lot from it? Truth be told, there are many video games, trading cards, and jerseys to sell. However, the answer is not that simple.
Players sign rights and image contracts, but they also receive a lump sum as part of their deal, allowing clubs to use their image in any way they see fit during the promotion.
When NFL players join the NFLPA (NFL Players Association), the members of which convey their right to publicity to the NFL via the CBA, they relinquish their right to publicity to the NFL.
From April 2021, players receive two-thirds of the proceeds from jerseys sale, with the remaining third going to the union. And the NFL Players Association puts some of that money into a pool for all players.
This means that even third-string linemen who don’t sell many jerseys will be paid at the end of the season.
However, there is a catch with the new jerseys: the NFL has long required players who request new numbers to pay for the old ones out of their own pockets.
For a more in-depth explanation, please read the rest of the article.
Do NFL Players Get Money for Jersey Sales – A Short Answer
The current NFL CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) includes a player contract form.
In that contract, the player assigns his publicity rights to the club and the league for any and all uses or purposes that promote and publicize NFL Football, the League, or any of its member clubs.
The player also grants the NFLPA the exclusive and unrestricted right to use, license, and sublicense his name, nickname, initials, likeness, persona, jersey number, and other personal indicia for any product or commercial purpose.
As we said, the money made from licensed gear is pooled and distributed according to the CBA’s terms.
The players can still make extra money off their names, but they’ve also given the NFL and the NFLPA that right.
The issue with merchandise is that it’s branded with NFL and team logos, which players don’t have the right to use commercially.
For example, perhaps Peyton could manufacture and sell his generic jerseys, but he couldn’t have his Colts jerseys replicated and sold because he doesn’t have the right to use the Colt mark.
I imagine there are agreements between each team and the NFL as to how they dole out the proceeds from the use of each teams’ respective marks.
This is all based on a 15-minute review of the 318 page CBA.
Which NFL Players Earned the Most Out of Jersey Sales?
We’ll look at a year before the pandemic started because we don’t have data for the last few years after it began (NFL is sometimes quiet about it).
According to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, the numbers in the NFL Players Association’s yearly report filed with the Department of Labor were absurd.
The money comes primarily from Nike, Electronic Arts, and Panini and is split among the players according to how much their names and likenesses have sold.
By the way, are you eager to know who sold the most jerseys? Well, the man who has spent 17 years with the SAME TEAM!
It’s Tom Brady, of course. Who knows how many Tom Brady jerseys the average New England Patriots supporter owns?!
The fact that TB earned $2.35 million in merchandise sales in 2019 is “staggering,” according to Russ Spielman, president of sports marketing at GSE Worldwide.
Peyton Manning, you see, can move markets whenever he wants, and you’ll understand why when his jersey hits the top of the sales charts.
But, for Brady, how many more Patriot fans do not own his jersey at this point? But the trend continues. It’s a lot of fun to watch.
Cowboys QB Dak Prescott and his 0 career playoff wins came in second with $2 million, followed by ex-Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown with $1.5 million.
Brady earned more royalty money than any other player in the NFL during the 2018 season, according to CBSSports, with a total of $2.35 million, making him one of only two players in the league to earn more than $2 million.
The figures come from the NFL Players Association. They only include endorsements that the NFLPA licenses, such as jerseys, video games, and trading cards (Brady probably made even more money doing endorsements for companies like Aston Martin and UGGs, but those aren’t included in the total because those companies don’t sell NFLPA licensed merchandise).
Dak Prescott was the only other player to earn more than $2 million in royalties, proving that being the starting quarterback for America’s team pays off. Prescott earned exactly $2 million. Antonio Brown was the highest-paid non-quarterback in terms of royalties, earning $1.5 million, good for third place overall.
It’s not all rainbows and sunshine…
In a column for si.com, Richard Sherman, a defensive back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, stated that the NFL always wins.
It surely is free advertising for the NFL every time a game ends on a contentious call or someone loses it on camera. It’s not just the player’s name that’s being discussed on all of the shows; it’s also the NFL logo.
That means more people will watch the Super Bowl, more people will visit their websites, and possibly more people will buy their jerseys, for which there isn’t much of a kickback. The league is always winning, even when they are taking money out of players’ pockets through fines.
Why NFL Players Actually Should be Compensated More for Sold Jerseys?
I work for T-mobile. Because that is how the company makes money, the money in my paycheck comes from the sale of phones and services. However, that doesn’t mean that I am paid a commission on phones sold. Whether I sell fifty phones in a day or none, my hourly wage remains the same.
However, whether 100,000 jerseys with his name are sold or none, players’ contracts should not have the same number of zeros. Why?
Sell more jerseys -> the league will negotiate a better-merchandising deal -> resulting in more money being funneled into the salary cap -> and players will be paid more.
In my case, that’s like T-Mobile devoting 50% of its profits to employee salaries. Employees sell more phones, resulting in higher overall profits and higher salaries.
But that is not the world in which we live. The CBA does set aside a portion of all profits for the salary cap. However, it directly impacts a player’s pay, which is the ultimate question.
Actors or musicians are probably the best analogies in this case. The majority of them (at least those who are good at negotiating) profit directly from product sales.
So, if your album sells X million copies, you’ll make Y thousands of dollars, or whatever, in addition to whatever salary you’re paid under the contract.
Due to the CBA and NFL profit-sharing collective nature, football players don’t see the same direct line from merchandise to their checks. It is filtered and homogenized first.
Penalties when it comes to changing numbers
Surprisingly, any player who chooses to change his number or name after Reebok’s seasonal deadline is subject to a penalty.
It’s part of the licensing agreement to prevent the manufacturer and (presumably) their distributors from keeping the dead product on their shelves.
If a player still wants to switch jerseys, he or she must effectively purchase the supplier’s entire back catalog of jerseys. Chad Johnson, for example, balked at having to pay Reebok’s penalty for switching jerseys when he changed his name to Chad Ochocinco in August 2008 and had to wait until the 2009 season to wear official “Ochocinco” jerseys.
Also, when I considered how much money players make from their jersey sales, I remembered this ESPN article. Peterson considered changing his number from 28 a few years ago. To buy out all of his old jerseys, he would have had to pay $1 million, and he claims he only made about $10,000 from the sales of his jerseys.
