Say hello to sport’s first half a billion dollar athlete

Why, in a post-coronavirus world, have the Kansas Chiefs signed off on the most valuable contract in sports history? As Ben Burrows writes, the answer is actually quite simple

Mahomes is now the best-paid player in NFL history (Reuters)

Patrick Mahomes is sport’s first half a billion dollar player. Take a moment to process that, the number really is that big.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl-winning quarterback on Monday put pen to paper on a 10-year agreement that could see him net $503million over the lifetime of the contract.

The deal sees Mahomes vault beyond baseball’s Mike Trout and Bryce Harper and boxing’s Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez into the rarefied air reserved only for sport’s true greats.

Even then no one before him has ever flown so high.

The figures involved are staggering. Mahomes will pocket $10m in signing bonus before the ink is even dry and by next March will have a further $130m in roster bonuses bump up an already healthy pay packet. By 2026, a further $49.4m becomes guaranteed. Should he win the league’s Most Valuable Player award between now and then – as he did back in 2019 – he will get another $25m. A Super Bowl appearance, like the one back in February, will net him another sizeable chunk of change.

So how, in a world where no individual, company or sports franchise has any money to spare, have the Chiefs signed off on the most valuable contract in sports history?

Why, when only five other players in the whole league have signed fresh terms since lockdown, have they committed to one for a decade plus?

Why, when other teams are looking anxiously at the league-mandated salary cap with dread because of what might yet come, have this one locked themselves into paying just one player 20% of their total allowable salary into the 2030s?

The answer really is quite simple. Mahomes is the best player at sport’s most challenging position and KC won the lottery to get him. Now they’ve made sure he’s going nowhere else for another decade at the least.

Ever since Mahomes came into the league, drafted 10th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft, having him has been a significant advantage on all of the other 31 teams.

Now, in the wake of this record-setting deal, they’ll have that advantage for another 10 years. In a game of inches, as Al Pacino so famously put it, Mahomes is a difference-maker.

The Chiefs have led the NFL in points, yards and third downs since Mahomes arrived. He averages over 300 passing yards per game and boasts the highest passer rating (108.9) in NFL history in that time. And what’s more, he only turns 25 in September. If all breaks right we’ll be doing this again before his career is done.

In a game designed to be full of unpredictables, Mahomes is a nigh-on certainty. That’s what the Chiefs are betting on.

KC are savvy too. This isn’t all about rewarding otherworldly talent. This is about preserving their own chances of making the best use of that talent for as long as possible.

Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL (AP)

The structure of the agreement means the damage to the Chiefs short-term salary cap is minimal. The guarantees, as mind-boggling as they are, are all conditional on Mahomes being Mahomes. If he isn’t, this contract won’t be what it looks like today. If he is, they’ll be winning and will be getting the best that all that money can buy.

Only five NFL players have ever signed a deal as long and none as lucrative. Brett Favre’s decade-long pact with the Packers set Green Bay back $100m in 2000. Mahomes’ is worth five-times that.

He has changed the game and now he’s changed the way the game’s players are paid too.

With such an outlay comes a risk of course. A career-ending injury could cost Kansas City more than $100m, for example.

But Mahomes has proven time and again he is more than worth that risk. He has shown in his short but wildly successful career to date that he can do things on the field that no other player has ever done. With this contract now he’s doing it off the field too.