Tom Brady is 81st on the Forbes Highest Paid Athlete List, and Only 15th Among NFL Players
About a year and a half ago, I posted about Gisele Bundchen losing the top spot on the Forbes list of top earning models for the first time since 2002. The No. 1 spot went to Kendall Jenner, with Gisele plummeting all the way down to the lowly second spot, with a paltry $17.5 million in earnings after she retired from the runway.
Well the Forbes hits keep right on coming for the Brady-Bundch family, as they just released their list of the highest earning athletes, and Tom struggled to a lowly 81st:
In February, Brady led the New England Patriots to yet another Super Bowl win, claiming his record sixth ring with a victory over the LA Rams.
Brady is one of the NFL’s best bargains; his $15 million-per-year average salary barely ranks among the 20 highest-paid quarterbacks.
Brady has focused on his TB12 lifestyle brand in recent years, eschewing most of the endorsement deals he is offered.
Brady is arguably the best QB to ever play the game. In addition to the Super Bowl and MVP trophies, he’s tied for a record 14 Pro Bowl nods.
To put this into context, that puts him $100,000 and one slot below Bradley Beal.
I acknowledge it’s futile to compare athletes from different sports and this list will always be dominated by soccer players, boxers, tennis players, motor sports guys, basketball players and golfers, because it’s just a different financial model for each discipline. But even among football players this is patently ridiculous.
By way of comparison, Brady is just the 15th highest paid NFL player on the list. FIFTEENTH. And 7th among quarterbacks, just 100 grand and one slot ahead of Andrew Luck (82nd). The six QBs ahead of him are: Russell Wilson (6th), Aaron Rodgers (7th), Ben Roethlisberger (12th), Drew Brees (27th), Nick Foles (36th) and Matt Ryan (60th). Which interesting because if you do the math you realize that combined those six have a total of six Super Bowl championships. Which might sound familiar to you.
As far as other NFL players go, being No. 81 puts Brady 68 spots behind Khalil Mack (13th), 59 behind DeMarcus Lawrence (22nd), 53 behind Aaron Donald (28th) and 47 behind Brandin freaking Cooks (34th). The Brandin Cooks you last saw getting touchdowns slapped out of his hands:
That’s not a knock on Cooks or any of the other guys for making what they make. This is America. Get paid, son. Just never let it be said that Tom Brady isn’t sacrificing himself financially for the betterment of his team. Don’t tell me the cap is crap. Let’s hear no more about how it’s all just an accounting trick and he doesn’t take pay cuts. There’s only one reason Tom Brady is so low on the Forbes list. And it’s not because he doesn’t need the money since his wife is so rich, given the fact she’s falling on such hard times in her retirement. It’s because he cares more about winning than money. Never forget that.