The NFL Pro Bowl represents the last chance for fans of teams not playing in the Super Bowl to see their favorite players before the season comes to a close on Sunday night during Super Bowl 60.
The Pro Bowl is just a meaningless event that doesn’t have any stakes attached to it, right? Wrong.
Why the 2026 Pro Bowl’s $96,000 Prize Still Matters to Players?
The Pro Bowl has changed over the years. Once upon a time, it was just like any other game. Full pads. Full contact. The game has changed for a variety of reasons. With injuries taking their toll over a 17-game season, it is difficult to motivate players to play another full-contact game after a grueling regular season.
While the format has changed, the stakes remain. Before Super Bowl 31, Mike Holmgren had his team enter the meeting room with a table covered with a surprise beneath it. Holmgren had taken the dollar amount of that year’s bonus for winning the Super Bowl and told his team that was what they were playing for.
Holmgren would later joke who didn’t like having a little extra money to spend? It’s true. Who doesn’t?
Spending money is what is at stake during the meeting of the AFC and NFC Pro Bowl teams. Pro Bowl payments increase each year of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The idea was that the league would provide players with a stronger reason to participate in the games, even if they are no longer as important as they used to be.
Last year’s Pro Bowl awarded the winning players $92,000, while the losing players received $46,000.
This season, prices are going up. The winners of this year’s Pro Bowl are set to receive $96,000, while the losers will still receive $48,000. Those totals are set to increase each year until the end of the CBA, when winners will receive $116,000, and losers will receive $58,000.
Not a bad prize, right?
For some players, that money could be more significant than for others. Jalen Hurts, for example, signed a lucrative contract extension worth $255 million in total money in April of 2023. That money is not as important to him as it would be to say Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Sanders is playing in the Pro Bowl as an alternate. He was a fifth-round pick and thus made just $1.16 million this season, which will be his salary for the duration of his rookie contract. Sanders is just one example of players playing on their first contracts who have not been able to hit the open market yet.
In the grand scheme of things, we are talking about champagne problems. All of these men playing in the Pro Bowl are incredibly wealthy relative to the rest of society. Tonight, that’s what will be at stake. A little spending money.
