Football Finance of 2018 Whether you’re a die-hard football fan, a casual watcher, or you just watch the Super Bowl for the halftime show, you have to respect the...

Football Finance of 2018

Whether you’re a die-hard football fan, a casual watcher, or you just watch the Super Bowl for the halftime show, you have to respect the institution of the NFL. The time-honored tradition of tailgating and Sunday night games has endured for decades, and the National Football League has the finances to match that respected reputation. In 2018, the NFL will spend $5.6 billion on their players, more money than the average American would see in many, very lucrative, lifetimes.

Our team loves analytics, and the sheer magnitude of football finance made us wonder – how many people’s combined incomes would it take to equal just one NFL player’s annual salaries? To find out, we pulled all of the 2018 total cap allocations, dead money, and top salaries for each team and the median household income for their home city. By analyzing this data, we were able to find out exactly how many average citizens in each city could be paid by their local NFL team. Here’s what the numbers have to say:

NFL Total Cap Allocation & Dead Money

Total cap allocation refers to the total amount of money spent on player salaries in a given year. The numbers are dramatic on their own, but compared to the median household income in each respective city, they become even more striking. In Detroit, for example, the Lions had a total cap allocation of $174,843,931 for 2018. With this amount, the Lions could pay the income of 6641 Detroit households. The Baltimore Ravens had the lowest number of households that could be paid with their total cap allocation with only 2228 households, but that’s still a staggering amount. The sheer magnitude of the finance behind these NFL teams involves a scope that is difficult for most of us to comprehend.

Dead money refers to compensation that goes to players who have been cut from the team or benched during the season but are still under contract. This means that these players are being compensated for not playing at all. With the dead money payouts just from 2018, the Buffalo Bills could provide 1682 Buffalo households with their yearly income, the highest number in the NFL. The lowest number comes from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have only $2,082,280 in dead money this year. Even though it’s the lowest amount, it can still pay the income for 45 households in the Tampa Bay area.

Highest Paid NFL Players based on Cap Hit

In a single season, most NFL stars make more money than most of us would see in several lifetimes. Jimmy Garoppolo will make $37 million this season in cap hit alone, not including a signing bonus. His pay would only support 422 San Francisco households, due to the higher than average median household income in this area. Similarly, Tom Brady will bring in $22 million in cap hit this season, and his salary could only support 376 Bostonian’s.

NFL Finance Across the US

The NFL as a whole spends outrageous amounts of capital every year on their players. In 2018, the total combined NFL salaries could finance 94,864 median household incomes. Aaron Rodgers alone could pay-out 1355 median American household incomes. And with just the dead money of 2018, 6,904 American families could collect their annual income.

Aaron Rodgers’ new contract with the Green Bay Packers sets a competitive bar for the NFL as a whole, and it will be interesting to see how football finances adjust to accommodate the rising salary standards in the future. For now, as football fans nationwide are gearing up for the 2018 season, it’s time to celebrate the fruits of the NFL’s labor through tailgates, fantasy leagues, and Sunday night matchups.