Super Bowl win may bring Mahomes $7 million endorsement bump
Each member of the Kansas City Chiefs will receive a $124,000 bonus for winning the Super Bowl.
Becoming an NFL champion, however, will be worth much more to their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. According to one advertising executive, the reigning NFL most valuable player will rake in as much as $7 million a year in additional endorsement income.
"He's already a household name and face," said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing executive at Baker Street Advertising. "This Super Bowl ring easily makes Mahomes the most marketable player in the NFL."
Mahomes finished 26-of-42 for 286 yards, including two touchdown passes and one rushing, and two interceptions during the Super Bowl. And he rallied the Chiefs to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20, at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium. It was Mahomes' first appearance in the NFL championship game, which is historically the most-watched program of the year with a U.S. audience of around 100 million.
The 24-year-old Mahomes was named the game's MVP, becoming the youngest player in NFL history to hold both league and Super Bowl MVP honors.
"I've been waiting my whole life to say this -- I'm going to Disney World," Mahomes said, reciting the line uttered annually by the game's MVP under terms of a deal with the Walt Disney.
Mahomes already has a significant collection of endorsement partners, including State Farm, Adidas, Oakley and EA Sports. Earlier this season, he supplanted New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady -- the holder of six Super Bowl rings -- as the NFL's top salesman. But Brady isn't being totally nudged from the spotlight: He appeared in an advertisement for the Hulu streaming service during Fox's coverage of the game.
Dorfman said the new partners that make sense for Mahomes are ones that can play off of his name -- Home Depot, At Home, Amazon Home or Zillow.
If anyone knows the endorsement value of a Super Bowl, it's Mahomes' agent, Leigh Steinberg, whose quarterback clients have included former Super Bowl MVPs Troy Aikman and Steve Young.
"The Super Bowl is the premier branding and marketing event in American sports. The potential for those who win and play well is to dominate the celebrity machine we have - that's the Today Show, the Tonight Show and magazine covers," he said in an interview prior to the game. "People who win vault into the stratosphere of name recognition. When Troy Aikman won the MVP in 1992, he went from Troy Aikman, football player, to Troy Aikman, up in lights."
The Chiefs trailed 20-10 heading into the fourth quarter, then stormed back with 21 consecutive points.
"It worked out well in the end," he said.
