A million here, a million there.

Professional sports contracts can seem massive, no matter the league, but we wanted to see what sport often ends up paying out the most in their top deals, especially relative to total league revenue. While the NFL has been a dominant force in US sports for the past decade for total league revenue, it was interesting to see how low their top 10 guaranteed contracts are compared to the NBA and MLB.

We pulled data on the top 100 guaranteed contracts in the NFL, MLB and NBA, and found a massive difference in the amount these contracts are worth.

What we found:

The top 10 guaranteed contracts in the NFL are only about 19% the total value of the top 10 guaranteed contracts in the MLB, and about 38% of the total value of the top 10 guaranteed contracts in the NBA.

The first NBA contract to show up, Mike Conley, is 30th on the list, behind 29 MLB contracts.

Most top NFL contracts don’t even crack the top 100 on the list in guaranteed money; counting non-guaranteed money, then Andrew Luck is the sole player to crack the top 50.

It’s interesting that the NFL pays so much less, relative to total league revenue. For each league’s total revenue in 2016, seen below:

League 2016 Revenue NFL $12,270,000,000 MLB $9,440,000,000 NBA $5,570,000,000

Below you will find full data on the current top 10 guaranteed contracts in the three leagues.

MLB Player Team Guaranteed Money Giancarlo Stanton Miami Marlins 325,000,000 Miguel Cabrera Detroit Tigers 248,000,000 Robinson Cano Seattle Mariners 240,000,000 Albert Pujols Los Angeles Angels 240,000,000 Joey Votto Cincinnati Reds 225,000,000 David Price Boston Red Sox 217,000,000 Clayton Kershaw Los Angeles Dodgers 215,000,000 Prince Fielder Detroit Tigers 214,000,000 Max Scherzer Washington Nationals 210,000,000 Zack Greinke Arizona Diamondbacks 206,500,000 Total $2,340,500,000

NBA Player Team Guaranteed Money Mike Conley Memphis Grizzlies 140,529,829 Damian Lillard Portland Trailblazers 139,888,445 Bradley Beal Washington Wizards 127,171,313 Anthony Davis New Orleans Pelicans 127,171,313 CJ McCollum Portland Trailblazers 109,853,029 DeMar DeRozen Toronto Raptors 109,760,025 Steven Adams Oklahoma City Thunder 103,140,517 Giannis Anteokounmpo Milwaukee Bucks 102,995,421 Andre Drummond Detroit Pistons 98,419,538 Rudy Gobert Utah Jazz 96,121,288 Total $1,155,050,718

NFL Player Team Guaranteed Money Ndamukong Suh Miami Dolphins 59,955,000 Eli Manning New York Giants 54,000,000 Andrew Luck Indianapolis Colts 44,000,000 Joe Flacco Baltimore Ravens 44,000,000 Marcel Dareus Buffalo Bills 42,900,000 Von Miller Denver Broncos 42,000,000 Cam Newton Carolina Panthers 41,000,000 Oliver Vernon New York Giants 40,500,000 Tony Romo Dallas Cowboys 40,000,000 Philip Rivers Los Angeles Chargers 37,500,000 Total $445,855,000

So what’s the reason behind all of this?

There are a few obvious reasons for this major discrepancy in salaries: