NFL Players' Podcast

Everyone talks about the number on a signing bonus. Almost nobody talks about what happens to it before it reaches your account. In this episode, the guys break down when rookies and veterans actually get paid, why the state you play in and the team you sign with change how much you keep, and the specific tax-withholding strategy AWM's team used to put an extra $100,000 back in one client's pocket — all without any of it becoming a guessing game.

Chapters
[00:00] Welcome back to the NFL Players' Podcast
[00:00] Setting up today's topic: what's really happening behind the scenes with your signing bonus
[00:01] Why most rookies sign and walk away without asking the right questions
[00:02] When rookies actually get paid — the 15-day portion and the delayed remainder
[00:03] Veterans vs. rookies: how payment timing and negotiation differ
[00:03] The jock tax explained: how state and team both affect what you keep
[00:04] Newsflash: your full signing bonus doesn't hit your account
[00:05] Behind AWM's numbers: $45M+ in gross client signing bonuses this off-season
[00:06] Jeff's world: what AWM's tax team does the moment a client signs
[00:07] Two ways teams handle withholding — and the $100K strategy that worked
[00:08] Why team payroll departments say no one else does this
[00:09] The long-term payoff: paying more now to pay less later, the right way

Connect with us
• Call or text: 602-989-5022
• Website: https://www.athletefamilyoffice.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/awmcapital/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awmcapital/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/awmcapital/
• X: https://twitter.com/awmcapital

Creators and Guests

Host
Jeff Locke
Wealth Strategist and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) at AWM Capital
Host
Riccardo Stewart
Former college character coach and Director of Human Capital & Family Leadership
Host
Sam Acho
Director of Human Capital and Impact and an in-studio and game analyst for ESPN.
Host
Zach Miller
Former NFL player and current CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®)

What is NFL Players' Podcast?

The podcast by NFL players for NFL players. Each week, we break down the biggest events in football and how they directly impact a player's career and money.

Join Former NFL Veterans Sam Acho (Bills, Bucs, Bears & Cardinals), Zach Miller (Seahawks & Raiders), Jeff Locke (Vikings, Colts, Lions, 49ers), and college coach, Riccardo Stewart, for a raw and unfiltered conversation about the game, the business, and how players can achieve generational wealth.

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach":
I wanna welcome you guys

Zach Miller "The Truth":
Welcome you guys back

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach":
episode of the AWM

Zach Miller "The Truth": of The Agent

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Podcast.

My name's Ricardo Stewart, I got the
pleasure of being your host, and I'm

joined by my friends Zach Miller,
who we call the Truth, Jeff Locke,

who we call the Professor, and last
but definitely not least, Sam Acho,

the one whom we call the Mayor.

The Mayor, the Mayor, the Mayor,
'cause he gets everybody's vote.

Guys, listen.

I wanna jump into it today because
what's pertinent now with our guys, we,

we have kind of two different groups of
guys we wanna talk about today, those

Zach Miller "The Truth": You
guys will come back with things

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": drafted

Zach Miller "The Truth": do single body

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": high
and, and are getting signing bonuses.

Whether you got drafted high or
not, this could relate to you, but

you're getting a signing bonus.

And then those of our clients who
are just signing that second and

third contract, many of them may
be moving to a different town.

But either or, talking primarily
about the signing bonus.

First, I w- I do wanna just congrats
these rookies because they're getting

these signing bonuses, and overnight,
especially the ones that weren't

getting seven-figure deals in college,
they're becoming millionaires, and

many of them multi-millionaires.

And I, I don't wanna talk about today
the income that they're making, um, I

wanna talk about something that most
people don't talk about, most players

don't know about, and most players'
advisors don't talk to them about,

and that is what's happening behind
the scene with my signing bonus?

Is it taxed like my ordinary income?

Is it taxed like my game checks?

Like, I maximize

Zach Miller "The Truth":
So why is this important?

So the types, as I said, it works
as long as you accept the data.

So I think we make that a little bit

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": And so
taxes and signing bonuses, that's not a

super sexy topic, so I said, "Why not?

Let's do it."

So Sam, first, typically, if I
just signed a paper I just signed a

contract, when can I expect my payment?

Sam Acho "The Mayor":
First of all, Ricardo,

Zach Miller "The Truth": Ricardo,

Sam Acho "The Mayor": it depends,

Zach Miller "The Truth": depends.

Sam Acho "The Mayor": depends, number

Zach Miller "The Truth": depends
on what if you're a rookie

Sam Acho "The Mayor": a

Zach Miller "The Truth":
or if you're a veteran.

So for most rookies,

Sam Acho "The Mayor": sign

Zach Miller "The Truth": when you sign
your contract, you can expect a portion of

your signing bonus to be paid within about

Sam Acho "The Mayor": days.

Zach Miller "The Truth": 15 days.

That's a portion of it.

Sam Acho "The Mayor": the other

Zach Miller "The Truth": Then the
other portion of that could be,

Sam Acho "The Mayor": a third

Zach Miller "The Truth": could
be a third of that or even

half of that could be coming

Sam Acho "The Mayor": and

Zach Miller "The Truth": months
and months down the line.

Sam Acho "The Mayor": in October,
could be in November, could be the

Zach Miller "The Truth": could
be in October, it could be in

November, it could be the following

Sam Acho "The Mayor": on

Zach Miller "The Truth": March

Sam Acho "The Mayor": the team
or depending on your agent.

So that's if

Zach Miller "The Truth": you

Sam Acho "The Mayor": a rookie.

Zach Miller "The Truth": get hurt

Sam Acho "The Mayor": Veterans a little,

Zach Miller "The Truth": in the
team or depending on your injury.

So that's a big variable.

Veterans, it will look a bit different.

Veterans can be negotiating higher rates

Sam Acho "The Mayor": could

Zach Miller "The Truth": and,

Sam Acho "The Mayor": So

Zach Miller "The Truth":
and contract demands.

So for rookies,

Sam Acho "The Mayor": days for a

Zach Miller "The Truth": days for part of

Sam Acho "The Mayor": could

Zach Miller "The Truth": it, the
rest of it comes a little bit later.

Again, it could be-- there's so

Sam Acho "The Mayor": bit later.

Vets could be different.

But there's so much that's

Zach Miller "The Truth": much that's
in place for athletes, but they need a

soccer time, expect to sign their contract

Sam Acho "The Mayor": right, my money's

Zach Miller "The Truth": and

Sam Acho "The Mayor": Waiting

Zach Miller "The Truth": be like,
"All right, my money's coming."

Wait for a check.

So,

Sam Acho "The Mayor": a
lot behind the scenes.

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach":
Yeah, it, it be like that.

So today's date, just so listeners,
you guys know, is June 10th.

Our last rookie just signed last week,
and I'm talking to him on the phone.

I'm like, "Do you have any idea what
your contract says or anything?"

And he's just like, "No, I just signed.

Ricardo, when is this
money about to drop?"

And that, that, that's
kind of like most people.

Like, they sign, most athletes,
they sign, they walk away, and

questions that they don't ask, Zach.

Like, where, when am I
gonna receive my money?

Thanks, Sam.

But does it matter what
state I receive it in?

Does it matter what team or different
organizations, are they different?

And so in terms of how my money is
taxed, does these things matter, Zach?

Zach Miller "The Truth": Yep, both
the state and the team matter.

So of your signing bonus, or most of
it, I should say, is gonna be taxed

in the state that you now play in.

that could be a huge difference.

That could be California
at 13% or Florida at 0%.

That's a lot of money in difference.

And so, you know, the jock tax, so now
every s- you know, the state you play

in, you're required to be there to
work to be a football player, 80 to…

85 to 90% of that is the duty days of how
much tax is gonna be owed to that state.

It's good when it's a 0% tax state,
Texas, Florida, those places, but

obviously not so great if you, if
you're one of the California teams.

And then each team treats it differently.

So how much you can
adjust from withholding.

So, you know, newsflash, you don't get
all the, that money that, that signing

bonus is supposed to be paid out to you.

That, you know, 10 million
of signing bonus, $10 million

ain't hitting your account.

You're gonna have to pay state and
federal taxes, and so each team is

gonna withhold a certain amount.

The cool thing is every team is different.

You can actually get, get them
to withhold less and do some

advanced tax strategies with that.

So very cool if you can
do that ahead of time.

If your team is able to
do that, huge win for you

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach":
Realistically, right, for a lot of these

rookies, that whole idea and concept of
withholding is very, very new because

many of them coming out of college,
all of them coming out of college,

these are, right now they're 1099.

So no one's withheld anything if they're
lucky, and this is another podcast, Jeff,

we're gonna talk about, like, what are
these quarterly tax payments that these

guys didn't or didn't pay and so forth.

But just kind of sticking with the
script and thinking particularly about,

about the signing bonuses now, Jeff,
you, you are behind the scenes for our

guys, and just off the top of my head,
I'm thinking upwards to 20 or more

million dollars of signing bonuses.

No, no, no, no.

How much money, Jeff, off the top
of your head, just generally this

off-season our clients have signed?

Definitely over 20 million

Jeff Locke "The Professor": Yeah.

Gross signing bonuses for our
clients are north of 45 million,

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Hey

Jeff Locke "The Professor":
this, this, this off-season.

Between the draft and our
veteran guys re-signing contracts

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": And I
know for you, your role on our team

is you are making sure that things
are getting done behind the scenes.

And the things that you are doing, most
other people are not doing, most players

have no idea that needs to be done.

So can you, can you walk us through,
if this was like an old school

throwback MTV Cribs, like, "Let me
show you what it's like living here."

What is it like living in your
world, doing the things that need

to be done for our, our clients?

Jeff Locke "The Professor": Yeah, so
I work directly with our tax team.

We have eight CPAs and myself, some
of our planning team and the CPAs,

pretty much the second our guys get
drafted or signed with a new team,

we are reaching out to the new team.

Before the contract's even signed,
we're establishing connection with

the new team's payroll team, director
of player engagement, whoever

we need to help our players out.

A lot of people don't do
this, just straight up, right?

They just wait to see how things
play out and fix it in the back end.

We don't do that.

We get ahead of things at AWM.

So what we do is we reach
out to the payroll team.

The second the contract is signed, we
get a copy of the contract, and we make

sure the taxes get set up correctly.

As Zach mentioned, it's
kind of crazy, right?

And this blew my mind when I learned it.

The tax code is 70,000 pages, right?

The IRS tax code, 70,000 pages with
rulings, all that kind of stuff.

Each team interprets the tax code
differently in terms of what they can

and cannot do with your signing bonuses.

So we get in contact and see what
that team allows us to do, and

there's really two situations, right?

The team is going to not withhold enough,
not take enough tax out, and then you

got to make sure you pay the tax later.

The mistake there is you don't know
you owe more tax, and then you get to

April and you owe tens of twenties of
thousands of dollars of int- interest

and penalties because you didn't pay
the tax when you were supposed to.

Then the flip side, some teams will allow
you to withhold less in tax, and then

you still owe it in April, but you get
to keep your money for an extra eight

months and earn money on your money.

So we actually did this
with a client last year.

He essentially made an extra $100,000
just because he didn't pay the IRS

early, and we were able to implement this
strategy with the team that he was on.

So this isn't just like a nice to have.

It's something that is real
dollars for our clients

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": And,
and how often legitimately teams

like, "Oh, financial advisors,
CPAs, they do this all the time."

Jeff Locke "The Professor": We
almost, a lot of times team payroll

will email us back and be like,
"Thank you so much for reaching out.

No other players CPAs reach out to us
to try and do this for their players."

And I, I, it actually makes my blood boil,
'cause then I know how many players are

not, you know, getting what they should

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Yep.

That is, that is something we
as listeners, as listeners,

we want you guys to know that.

Uh, before I land this plane, Zach,
Sam, anything else you would wanna

add in the convers- Zach's ready.

Go, go ahead.

Go Zach.

Zach Miller "The Truth": Now the c-
the coolest thing is, yes, you're

gonna pay high taxes when you're a
player, but if you have the right

team and you're doing it the right
way, you live essentially the 23.8%

maximum tax rate because that's the
long-term capital gain qualified

dividend, the right way to invest once
you're done playing, and that's where

I am now, and that's a good trade-off
to pay a high tax rate as a player

to pay essentially maximum 23.8%

federal when you're done

Riccardo Stewart "The Coach": Love it.

I absolutely love it.

Listen, we talked a little bit about
some things that may be new to you,

maybe some things that you're thinking,
"I don't know much about that," and

even phrases like withholding or
dividends and gains and so forth.

it is you've heard, if you got
questions about it, the point that we

do this is so that you would ask us.

We would love for you to reach out to us.

We've had plenty of
people reaching out to us.

You can text us, and the
number is 602-989-5022