Brock Purdy Makes Less Money Per Year Than 22 College Athletes. That's Not Okay

Brock Purdy will start in Super Bowl LVIII for the San Francisco 49ers in just under two weeks from today. And yet, he’s not getting paid like most professionals - or even college athletes. 

Yesterday, Purdy helped engineer the largest comeback from a halftime deficit in NFL conference title game history. San Francisco trailed 24-7 after two quarters, looking completely lost.

But once the second half hit, Purdy played out of his mind.

Sure, the 51-yard pass that ended in a Brandon Aiyuk circus catch was luck. But he racked up 174 passing yards and a touchdown pass in the second half and kept drives alive by scrambling. He looked like more than the game manager that his critics claim he is. He looked like a franchise quarterback.

However, he isn’t getting paid like one.

Remember, Purdy slipped all the way to the final pick of the 2023 draft. Because of his draft status, the 49ers aren’t obligated to pay him that much money. San Francisco signed him to a contract where his average annual value (AAV) is $934,253, 89th among all 96 quarterbacks in the league. This season, he will make just $870,000 this year from playing football.

Purdy still lives with a roommate in San Francisco because of how much it costs to live in that city. He does have several endorsement deals, which certainly helps with the rent.

For perspective, his backup - Sam Darnold - has a contrast with an AAV of $4.5 million, the 36th highest in the NFL. Darnold has started one game this year (a meaningless Week 18 game) and has no playoff victories to his name. 

So the guy who’s actually doing the heavy lifting on Sunday’s gets paid less than a million dollars per year and can’t live on his own. Sure, the 49ers didn’t know Purdy would be this good when they signed him, but that’s still an insane bargain.

But it’s not just Purdy’s backups that are earning more per year than him either.

College Athletes Make Way To Much Money Thanks To NIL

Thanks to NIL, college athletes can get paid for not being professional athletes. I was never in favor of this, because I feared it would create a world of selfish young adults who are more focused on getting money, even if they haven’t proven they’re worth it.

Man, did I call it.

You see this happen most in football, where teams like Michigan are literally paying kids who aren’t legally old enough to drink yet to come back for another year of college. It has turned college athletics on its head and made it a slightly less lucrative version of the pros.

As of right now, there’s no limit on how much money these kids can make. That’s led to some kids earning more money than professional athletes, like Purdy.

According to On3, there are 22 collegiate athletes who made more this year at the collegiate level than the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, including 16 football players. That list includes, but is not limited to:

Ewers and Milroe are the only two players that actually play at a level that slightly justifies their price tag. Ewers got Texas to the College Football Playoff, and Milroe did the same for Alabama.

What did Sanders and Hunter do? Help Colorado to four - yup, four - wins this past season. That means the school paid each of them $875,000 per win. In case you forgot, that’s barely less than what Purdy makes from his contract this whole year. 

And Manning? That dude gets paid almost $3 million a season to watch Ewers do the playing on Saturdays. Most of the other football players on this list also haven’t done anything noteworthy in their career either.

College Athletes Should Not Make More Than Purdy

This is exactly why NIL sucks. The worst part? Thanks to the transfer portal, they can just up and leave that program for another school that offers them more money.  It’s turned college sports into a bidding war for athletes that more often than not do not meet their gaudy contracts.  It’s disgusting, and breeds entitlement and short-term vision in the players.

Not that the NCAA cares. They met the players' demands and feel they’ve created a “better sport” because of it.

Well, it’s not. Because now you’re letting kids earn nearly $5 million a year to win four games for a terrible football team, while making more than a quarterback who will start in the Super Bowl.

At this point, you can’t go back. The NCAA opened the floodgates by enacting NIL legislation. As such, there has to be a cap on how much players can earn.

Frankly, the cap should be $100,000 per year. That way you can still get money (on top of your scholarship), and still make nearly twice the average annual income in America. I’d say that’s more than fair for a bunch of adults in their late teens and early 20’s who haven’t even proven they can be professionals at their craft.

And for goodness sake, someone better give Purdy a raise soon. The 49ers can't give him a contract upgrade until 2025, but I have a felling he'll get quite the upgrade. Maybe then he'll finally make more per year than college kids.