NFL star publicly shared his payslip to show how much elite level players really earn

An NFL star publicly shared his payslip to show how much players earn at the elite level of American football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States, with the pinnacle of that being, of course, the NFL.

To sum up just how big the sport is, media revenues between the NFL and media networks were said brought in over $10 billion across the year of 2024, as part of a $110 billion, 11-year contract signed in 2021.

Advertisers pay an average of $7 million for a 30-second ad slot during the Super Bowl, as per Statista, with this year's edition due to be staged in March.

As a result, some of the NFL's top stars are incredibly wealthy indeed - but how much exactly do they earn?

In November 2023, San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Arik Armstead posted an image of his payslip online, which also showed how much he was paying in taxes.

Armstead, now 31, was a first round draft pick by the 49ers in 2015, and he had remained with the team for his entire career at the time of the post. He was signed earlier this year by Jacksonville Jaguars and played all of their regular season games.

The payslip showed that Armstead was earning a cool $393,055 per game during the 2023/24 NFL season - with $194,085.25 of those earnings taken back in federal, state and local taxes.

Up to that point, the defensive tackle had earned over $2 million in net wages during the season.

This season, Armstead has seen his role change after signing a $43.5 million deal with the Jaguars, who finished 12th in the AFC Conference and therefore failed to qualify for the postseason.

He is now playing as a defensive end rather than defensive tackle, and told media in November: "I agreed to it. Everything is difficult. Each season brings new challenges and adversity.

"I'm always a player who tries to do what my coaches and my team asks of me and need from me, and that's what it is.

"So I feel like I can help in a lot of ways, but just try to do what's asked of me."