Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders’s slide from expected high first-round pick in the 2025 Draft to the 144th slot in the fifth round deprived him of a guaranteed contract and a mega-payday, leaving him with a slotted average annual salary of $1.005 million.
But now the heavily-hyped son of Deion Sanders is laughing all the way to the bank, as he earned a record-shattering $17.7 million in group licensing income over the course of the season, according to the NFL Players Association annual report filed this week with the Department of Labor.
The prior record was Tom Brady’s $9.5 million in the 2021-2022 season.
Sanders is listed under the name of his limited liability corporation, SS2Legendary, which is also his Instagram handle. By comparison, in the 2024-2025 NFL season, J.J. McCarthy led all players with $4 million through his LLC Newberry Raised.
Group licensing encompasses deals that include six or more players, the most typical of which are jerseys, trading cards, video games, and other collectibles. In addition to royalties, the NFLPA figures also include player marketing income from appearances and hospitality promotions.
Group licensing does not include individual deals like Sanders has with Gatorade, Delta Airlines, Beats by Dre and Ralph Lauren. Taking into account his personal endorsement deals, Sanders likely pulled in well north of $20 million in off-the-field earnings, an incredible sum for a rookie fifth-round pick but perhaps not that surprising given his celebrity and the media attention showered on him.
The Browns did not reply to a request for comment from Sanders; he did not use a contract agent for his draft process.
NFLPA Group Licensing Revenue Surged
Sanders’s bounty is not isolated. NFLPA overall group licensing revenue surged last season, according to the union’s annual report, a reflection of the booming collectibles and trading card markets.
A healthy share of the union’s group licensing business is done through OneTeam Partners, which handles that function for several league unions, including the MLBPA. (The company is the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation.) Group licensing revenue from OneTeam, Fanatics, Panini and Electronic Arts combined in the 12 months ended February 28 hit $297 million, up from $202.6 million in the year-before period, a 47% increase.
Panini, which is no longer the official licensed trading card of the NFLPA, delivered $93 million last year, a massive leap from the $39.6 million in the year before.
Hunter, Mahomes in Top 4 Group Licensing Earners Last Season
Rookies often lead the group licensing list because official pro team items bearing their names are selling for the first time. Last season, three of the top four were rookies.
The No. 2 earner, whose LLC is called TIPENTERPRISE LLC and earned $12.8 million, in any other year would have been the one to set a record-busting figure, if not for Sanders. TIPSENTERPRISE is the LLC of Sanders’s former University of Colorado teammate Travis Hunter, a source told FOS.
In third was Patrick Mahomes with his LLC, 2PM, pulling in over $8 million. Mahomes led all players in the 2023-2024 season with $3.6 million, and his main target Travis Kelce was fourth that year with $2.4 million. Last year, 2PM LLC earned $1.9 million. Some of the fluctuation can be attributed to the timing of payments as annual reports filed with the Department of Labor use cash accounting, meaning the figures reflect how much has actually been paid at the end of the fiscal year, rather than how much was contracted (accrual accounting).
In fourth place was Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, whose LLC, NALO Enterprises, took in $4.5 million. And in fifth was Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley whose LLC, SBQB, received $4.3 million coming off his sensational Super Bowl-winning season.
