There’s some confusion out there regarding the compensation that Brett Favre will earn this year from the Vikings. Without naming names or pointing fingers or naming names, let’s summarize the situation, based on information that previously has appeared in this space.
Starting last year at about this very same time.
On August 19, 2009, we explained that Favre’s $12 million base salary for his first season with the Vikings would be paid out in three chunks. He’d get $12 million via weekly game checks throughout the 2009 season. He also received $4 million in March 2010, and he’ll get another $4 million in 2011.
So he has earned the full $12 million, and he has been paid $8 million of it. Another $4 million is still owed, regardless of whether he would have returned to the Vikings for the 2010 football season. (Retirement wouldn’t have affected the situation; since he received no signing bonus in 2012, he would not have been required to pay back or give up any of his $12 million.)
On August 18, 2010, 52 weeks to the day after our report regarding the breakdown of Favre’s 2009 compensation, Judd Zulgad reported that Favre’s $13 million base salary in 2010 likely will be augmented via $3.5 million in additional base salary and up to another $3.5 million in available incentives. Though the split between base salary and incentives has been described differently elsewhere, with some of the base salary being characterized as a signing bonus, the end result widely is believed to be 2010 earnings of up to $20 million for Favre.
But the fact that Favre was still owed $8 million after the 2009 season ended doesn’t mean that he will “earn” $8 million plus $20 million in 2010. He’ll earn $8 million even if he decides to call it quits.
We mention this not because our OCD has compelled us to tidy up an apparent mess, but because we’ve gotten more than 35 e-mails already asking us: (1) whether we think it’s true that Favre will make up to $28 million in 2010; and (2) why we haven’t mentioned it yet.
So we don’t think it’s true, because $8 million already has been earned, and $4 million will still be paid, in 2011. Favre is expected to earn up to $20 million that he hasn’t already earned.
And now we’ve finally mentioned it.
