The Pittsburgh Steelers have a star studded roster, and when you have players with big contracts you have roster bonuses which need to be sent out. For the black-and-gold, March 16th parked a date when several big named players earned a lot of extra zeroes in their bank accounts due to roster bonuses.
This from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler:
Steelers set to pay big roster bonuses today. Among earners: Antonio Brown ($6 M, number restructured), Ben Roethlisberger ($5 M), Al Villanueva ($3 M, restructured), Joe Haden ($1 M).
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) March 16, 2018
Antonio Brown earned an extra $6 million dollars, the number was adjusted due to his restructured contract. Ben Roethlisberger was given an extra $5 million, Alejandro Villanueva an extra $3 million after his restructured deal and Joe Haden earned an extra $1 million.
That is a lot of money being handed out by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but most would agree the aforementioned players did more than earn that money in 2017. Often times roster bonuses are guaranteed, but sometimes they are contingent on certain criteria. We don’t know if these players hit specific goals in their contracts, or were just owed the money, but these players are a lot richer now.