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NFL contract records are set all the time, but most players never receive the full amount. We examine the stark difference between total money and guaranteed money, and where the gaps have been biggest this week.
—David Rumsey, Colin Salao, and Eric Fisher
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After several days of NFL free-agent frenzy, and a billion-dollar weekend of deals, players will finally be able to officially sign contracts with new teams when the 2025 league year begins at 4 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The money has been flying around this offseason, as it does every March, with the sport’s best players getting tens—and in some cases hundreds—of millions of dollars from extensions and new contracts. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Because of the NFL’s aversion to fully guaranteed contracts, many of the marquee deals agreed to this week have total sums reported that are far higher than the actual amount of money each team is guaranteeing to said player.
Take Sam Darnold, for example. His new contract with the Seahawks is reportedly a three-year, $100.5 million deal. However, just more than half of it, $55 million, is guaranteed. That makes it unlikely Darnold will actually play all three years of that contract under its initial terms. If he plays poorly, the Seahawks could release him without a huge financial penalty. If he plays well, Darnold will likely seek a raise.
Another example: Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn. His four-year, $100 million extension is a lower total amount than the four-year, $104 million contract defensive tackle Milton Williams signed with the Patriots. However, Horn is guaranteed more money ($70 million) than Williams ($63 million).
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is getting more guaranteed money than any non-quarterback in NFL history ($122.8 million), as part of a four-year, $160 million extension. That comes just three years after Cleveland gave quarterback Deshaun Watson the most guaranteed money ever, $230 million over five years. Watson is unlikely to play in 2025, but he has a $172 million dead-cap hit.
That was until Sunday, when the Bills locked up NFL MVP Josh Allen through 2030 with $250 million in guaranteed money, as part of a deal that, of course, has a much higher reported total value: $330 million.
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After months of chatter on the NBA’s declining viewership, the league’s oldest rivalry has pushed its ratings as close as they have been to last year’s mark.
The Celtics and Lakers game drew 4.61 million viewers and peaked at 5.34 million Saturday on ABC, the most-watched non-Christmas regular-season NBA game since 2018, the league announced Tuesday. The game even outdrew two of this season’s Christmas Day games—the only regular-season game to achieve that feat this year.
Before Saturday, the most-watched non-Christmas game this year was a Jan. 25 matchup between the Lakers and Warriors on ABC that drew 3.05 million viewers.
The NBA is now averaging 1.57 million viewers for its nationally televised games, down 2% from last year. It’s a stark improvement over the double-digit declines the league experienced through the first two months of the year. The NBA had an 18% viewership decline before Christmas, when the five-game slate simulcast on ABC and ESPN cut the dip to 4%.
Saturday’s game had the recipe for a top-tier draw. The Celtics and Lakers are the league’s two winningest franchises, and both teams are top three seeds in their respective conferences and championship contenders.
Most of the teams’ stars were also available for the game. LeBron James and Luka Dončić played for Los Angeles—though James went down with an injury in the fourth quarter—and both are considered top viewership draws, especially after the shocking trade that sent Dončić to the Lakers last month. Boston’s core that won the 2024 championship was mostly available, with only Kristaps Porziņģis missing due to illness.
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The Yankees enjoyed a meteoric increase in ticket and luxury-seat revenue in 2024, but they now face questions of how to maintain the momentum amid a spate of player injuries.
The Major League Baseball club reported a franchise record $411.7 million in sales from tickets and luxury suites last year, according to newly filed bond disclosures, a 40% increase over 2023. The higher total included $101.9 million in sales from postseason tickets and suites during what was the Yankees’ first trip to the World Series since 2009.
As much as 30% of that latter total is subject to refunds or credits for three potential postseason games that were paid for in advance but not played. Playoff revenue is also subject to greater levels of sharing with other teams and players, including funding the postseason player pool that reached record levels in 2024.
Still, the filing provides another glimpse into the economic power of the Yankees, perhaps surpassed in MLB by only the Dodgers. The totals do not include any other revenue sources, including key areas of central fund money from MLB, local media and sponsorship, and merchandise and concession sales. The Yankees’ ticket and luxury-seat revenue last year, however, by itself amounts to 62% of the $663 million in total revenue the Braves generated in 2024, including from The Battery mixed-use development.
The Yankees’ annual filing is part of required disclosures related to their operation in Yankee Stadium, owned by the New York City Economic Development Corp. The data represent one of the few public glimpses into MLB club–level finances beyond the publicly traded Braves. The ticket revenue also supports the bonds used to construct the ballpark.
Beyond the on-field run to the 2024 World Series, lost in five games to the Dodgers, the Yankees also boosted attendance to 3.31 million, the club’s highest mark since 2018.
The 2024 ticket and luxury-suite revenue tops the team’s prior high of $397 million set in 2009, the first year of the new Yankee Stadium and also the season of the Yankees’ last World Series title.
Matching the robust totals from last year, however, has now grown tougher following the season-ending arm injury for ace Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, who underwent Tommy John surgery Tuesday.
Cole’s situation adds to the rash of injuries befalling the Yankees in recent days that also includes designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, infielder DJ LeMahieu, and last year’s AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, who will be out at least three months.
“For me, I have to be Max Fried,” said the pitcher who signed a $218 million free-agent deal with the Yankees in December, and will now be counted on to anchor the starting rotation. “I can’t try to fill anyone else’s shoes. I have to know what makes me successful and not try to be someone I’m not.”
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Do you think NFL teams should be required to fully guarantee a certain percentage of player contracts?
Tuesday’s result: 83% of respondents think the Bears, Commanders, and Patriots are making the right decision by spending big around young QBs.
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