For countless Americans across the United States, working is not only a necessity but a case of survival. With the cost of living continuing to rise, wages struggling to keep up, money getting tighter, and people struggling to live month by month.
When you add in sickness and forced absence, the situation can be dire for many.
However, even workers who aren’t contractually protected from absences forced through injury, sickness, or any other reason, do have some options.
So, we wanted to shine a light on the amount elite athletes earn, regardless of inclusion in match day teams, to remind American workers who are not protected by large financial contracts that they may be entitled to compensation for missed or lost earnings.
We looked at players across the; NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL, as well as global soccer, to reveal a list of the 50 male athletes who have earned the most while not playing, through injury or other absences.
The research focused on the top ten highest earning players from each sport to reveal who had made the most money watching from the sidelines.
To generate the list, our data analysts looked at the highest earning players within each sport; American football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer are America’s five most-watched, according to recent viewership numbers*. We then divided the total earnings across the total number of games each player could have played throughout their career, revealing their overall earnings per game. We then calculated the amount earned for every game missed to reveal the total amount earned while benched, injured, or otherwise absent.
Houston Astros’ Justin Verlander was named sport’s biggest ‘bench-earner’ after our researchers discovered he’d earned a staggering $248m while benched, injured, or unavailable.
In fact, and quite frankly, to our surprise, baseball dominated the top ten, with MLB players making up the entirety of the top five highest earners. Verlander topped the list, followed by Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, who earnt $225 million and $222 million without even ever pitching a ball.
World-renowned Brazilian soccer star Neymar was the highest ranking athlete from any other sport, finishing 6th on the list, with earnings of more than $80m while sidelined.
The fifty highest ranking ‘bench-earners’ and their sport, as well as the amount they’ve earnt from the sidelines, are:
- Justin Verlander (MLB) – $248,349,306
- Zack Greinke (MLB) – $225,598,279
- Clayton Kershaw (MLB) – $222,079,132
- David Price (MLB) – $206,264,276
- Max Scherzer (MLB) – $161,432,850
- Neymar (soccer) – $80,122,732
- Blake Griffin (NBA) – $67,196,616
- Miguel Cabrera (MLB) – $62,541,318
- Gareth Bale (soccer) – $62,023,235
- Chris Paul (NBA) – $61,147,394
- Steph Curry (NBA) – $57,351,360
- Aaron Rodgers (NFL) – $57,179,673
- Kevin Durant (NBA) – $55,740,300
- Al Horford (NBA) – $54,437,600
- Albert Pujols (MLB) – $51,774,120
- Carmelo Anthony (NBA) – $50,213,000
- Lebron James (NBA) – $47,739,072
- Mike Trout (MLB) – $45,817,660
- Tom Brady (NFL) – $45,363,304
- Kirk Cousins (NFL) -$42,794,840
- Lionel Messi (soccer) – $42,607,696
- Joey Votto (MLB) – $41,573,333
- Robinson Cano (MLB) – $40,702,427
- Dwight Howard (NBA)- $38,863,890
- Trent Williams (NFL) – $37,911,555
- Oscar (soccer) – $37,147,398
- Kylian Mbappe (soccer) – $35,496,551
- Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer) – $34,706,011
- Andres Iniesta (soccer) – $34,627,377
- Joe Flacco (NFL) – $33,286,085
- Shea Weber (NHL) – $32,389,948
- Evgeni Malkin (NHL) – $32,084,161
- Russell Westbrook (NBA) – $31,924,879
- James Harden (NBA) – $31,251,224
- Ryan Tannehill (NFL) – $30,483,856
- Sidney Crosby (NHL) – $30,136,679
- Von Miller – (NFL) $28,586,052
- Cam Newton (NFL) – $27,851,616
- Matthew Stafford (NFL) – $25,807,496
- Eden Hazard (soccer) – $24,820,958
- Sergio Ramos (soccer) – $24,288,311
- Toni Kroos (soccer) – $20,372,093
- Zach Parise (NHL) – $19,642,896
- Marian Gaborik (NHL) – $18,883,759
- Joe Thornton (NHL) – $18,281,760
- Alex Ovechkin (NHL) – $11,037,600
- Patrick Kane (NHL) – $10,873,692
- Ndamukong Suh (NFL) – $10,588,955
- Anze Kopitar (NHL) – $8,969,884
- Ryan Suter (NHL) – $8,804,220
Across the top five athletes, comprised solely of MLB players, the bench-earnings total more than $1.06bn, meaning the earnings taken home by these five baseball players equals nearly two-thirds of the amount earnt by the other 45 athletes included on the list, which totaled $1.66 billion. Baseball’s overall contribution to the list totals $1.36bn, which is nearly a billion dollars higher than the second highest ‘bench-earning sport’, basketball, which boasts a total of $495m.
Looking at Justin Verlander’s career more closely, the Astros pitcher has played just 474 games out of a possible 2,754, all the while earning more than $299m in the process. To put this into context, he has earnt $108,782 for each game he could have participated in; however, after missing 2,283 games throughout his career, the pitcher has earned $238m without stepping onto the field.
Four-time finals MVP and winner Lebron James was only the seventh-highest basketball player in terms of match earnings made from the bench, equalling $47,739,072, despite boasting the highest career earnings of any current NBA player. NFL legend and 7-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady was the second highest from the NFL behind Aaron Rodgers, earning $45,363,304.
Global soccer star and seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi finished third behind Neymar and Gareth Bale within the soccer category, despite having the record for the highest paying contract in sports history. The Argentinian has earnt $42,607,696 while sidelined.
Featured Image: GJEL
