NFL
OTD 2020: Mahomes Signed Largest Contract Ever
July 6, 2020: After leading the Chiefs to a Super Bowl victory in 2020, Patrick Mahomes signed a $500M+ record-breaking contract extension
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Patrick Mahomes signed the largest deal in professional sports history ($503M) on this day in 2020, shattering the previous NFL record of $150M. The 24-year-old accomplished so much in just two years of being the starting quarterback in Kansas City. He won the MVP award, a Super Bowl MVP, and owned one of the two 5,000 PASS YDS/50 TD seasons in NFL history. The Chiefs bet HALF A BILLION dollars that their 10th overall pick from 2017 had much more in store over the next decade and the best is yet to come. Nobody in the history of sports had ever seen a deal of this magnitude.
PATRICK MAHOMES SIGNED THE LARGEST CONTRACT IN NORTH AMERICAN SPORTS HISTORY
The biggest takeaway from this record-breaking contract was the game-changing impact the deal had on the NFL market going forward. Of course, Mahomes was the exception and the player with the most leverage to command a deal like this, which is why he was the FIRST player to receive a contract north of five years and/or north of $150 million.
However, before this deal, it was impossible to believe a player would pass either of those thresholds, yet it became more likely that multiple players would break those previous barriers over the coming years. Those impossibilities just went out the window with this game-changing deal. Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, and other top-tier QBs that were soon going to get paid could all thank the FRANCH15E for the boost they’d receive in their next deal.
Prescott in particular would sign a $160 million contract in 2021. Similar to Kirk Cousins’ game-changing fully-guaranteed deal, this could have ripple effects across positions well-beyond the Quarterback position. It’s not that contracts going forward would reach $500M (or even anywhere close) or that they’d be fully guaranteed like Cousins, but they each leveraged their earning-power by moving the bar toward the players side that helped their peers get closer to their financial goals.
July 6, 2020: #Chiefs signed Patrick Mahomes to a record-breaking 10y extension worth $503M. The contract was the 1st half-billion-dollar contract in North American sports history and the 1st NFL player to be the highest-paid athlete in pro sports historypic.twitter.com/VlW7dCduAR
— Pro Sports Outlook (@PSO_Sports) July 6, 2021
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