An NFL headline caught our eyes this morning: “Chiefs’ Travis Kelce OK being ‘underpaid’: ‘I love winning'”—and we wondered the obvious question stated in this column’s hook. This idea is not new to us as former NCAA athletes and long-time sports journalists; we first thought about it during the Michael Jordan years in the early 1990s. If someone really wants to win, they’ll take one for the team to do so.

Especially if they’re great players, they’ll make up for it in endorsements and other business ventures. After all, what’s the difference between being a billionaire and a multibillionaire? A few extra billions you could never spend in your lifetime, anyway. And while we understand the “grab all you can” mentality and the motivation to set your family up for life (and several lifetimes ahead, too, perhaps), how much is enough?

Kelce’s full comments are as follows:

  • “… the free market looks like fun until you go somewhere, and you don’t win. I love winning. I love the situation I’m in.”
  • “You see how much more money you could be making and, yeah, it hits you in the gut a little bit. It makes you think you’re being taken advantage of.”
  • “I don’t know if I really pressed the gas if I would get what I’m quote-unquote worth. But I know I enjoy coming to that building every single day.”

And why shouldn’t he? The Kansas City Chiefs are the best franchise in professional football right now: they have won two of the last four Super Bowl, playing in a third as well. The organization has won seven straight AFC West Division titles and hosted a record five-consecutive AFC Championship matchups, as well. That is the ultimate in success, and Kelce is smart enough to know what is important.

He’s also likable and marketable enough to make plenty of money off the field, too. We don’t know how accurate this source is, but it lists all these endorsements: McDonald’s, Papa John’s, Nike, Dick’s Sporting Goods, L’Homme de Maison, Lokai, LG, Tide, and Helzberg Diamonds. No matter what he makes each year on the field, he probably doubles it with the collective payments for pimping those products.

And Kelce will keep winning for the foreseeable future, thanks to his teammates. Winning isn’t everything, after all, but it is possibly the only thing. Just look at the Super Bowl ring he just pocketed: it’s ridiculous on several different levels, but it’s still worth a lot, too. Perhaps it is priceless, as are the bonds he forms with his teammates who believe in the same principles he does: self sacrifice and winning.

Remind us again why more athletes don’t think this way? We remember when Barry Bonds—sorry, we hate to beat a dead horse—was in his PED prime (2000-2004), and he demanded ridiculous salaries from the San Francisco Giants. Of course, Bonds was never liked off or on the field, so maybe we understand why he was such a selfish bastard. But his salaries crippled his franchise’s ability to field a great team with him.

By 2004, he was making $18M on a team with a total payroll of around $75M. How did he expect to ever win a World Series that way? Then, Bonds needed a raise in 2005 to a whopping $22M. By then, though, his body started falling apart due to all the PED use at his age (40), and Bonds managed to play in just 14 games that season as the Giants lost 87 games with a worthless roster outside of his bloated salary.

Kelce is smarter than Bonds. We know this on several different fronts, of course, but it’s just been reiterated for all athletes to see: win first, get paid later if you must. In the meantime, keep the joy in your heart, and you will do well off the field, too, when it comes to finances and security.