Why we built this

About KeepMyCheck

Players hear the contract number on TV. Almost nobody shows them the number that lands in the bank. KeepMyCheck does, for free, in plain English.

How it started

It started with a video. A former NFL star was on a late-night sports show talking about agents, and he said the part nobody likes to say out loud: the agent takes his cut off the top of the full contract, before a single dollar goes to taxes. Players hear the big number on TV. They almost never hear the real one.

So I did the math. On a $50 million, four-year deal, a 3% agent takes $1.5 million. That sounds like 3%. But measured against what the player actually keeps after taxes, it is about 5% in Texas and more than 6% in California. Then come the taxes in every state the team visits, the business manager, the lawyer, and the family who needs help. The number on TV and the number in the bank are two different numbers.

Nobody was showing young athletes that math in plain English, for free, before they sign. So I built it.

Who is behind it

I'm Benjamin. I'm not an agent, not a financial advisor, and nobody pays me to send you anywhere. Years ago I ran promotions in East Texas with a street team of young men, and one of them now works in college football helping athletes get ready for what is coming. I've watched young people get handed more money than anyone in their family has ever seen, with no one around them who knows how it works. KeepMyCheck is the tool I wish every one of them had.

Why it matters

A careful study of NFL players drafted from 1996 to 2003 found that 15.7% filed for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring, and that earning more or playing longer did surprisingly little to protect them. The problem is rarely one bad night. It is a slow leak: taxes nobody explained, fees nobody questioned, and spending built on a number that was never real. Young athletes, and the families around them, deserve the full picture before they sign, not after.

Our promises

Free, always. No sign-up to use any tool.
No referral fees. We are not paid by any agent, advisor, lawyer, or company to send you to them.
Your numbers stay yours. Offers you save in My Offers stay on your own phone.
We show the math. Every calculator explains how it works, below, with the sources.
Plain English, and Spanish. Written so a player and their mom can both follow it.

Start with the take-home calculator, check what your agent really costs with the agent fee calculator, or plan for a short career with the three-season planner.

How the pro calculator works

For each season, the calculator takes your salary (plus any signing bonus in year one) and works out:

Federal income tax with 2026 brackets and the standard deduction for your filing status, minus the child tax credit (which phases out at high incomes).
Social Security and Medicare: 6.2% up to $184,500, 1.45% on everything, and 0.9% more above $200,000 ($250,000 married).
Home games: the share of your duty days spent at home is taxed by your team's state (or Canadian province), plus any local wage tax at the venue.
Road games (the jock tax): the rest of your duty days, taxed at the average rate of every other venue in your league, including states with no tax (which count as zero), local taxes, and Canada.
Your home state: taxes all of your income, minus a credit for tax paid to other states. Reciprocal agreements between neighboring states are respected.
Signing bonus: treated as taxable only by your home state, because most states do not split a bonus that is paid just for signing. Bonuses tied to playing are different.
Fees: the agent percentage, any business manager or advisor percentage, and a yearly amount for a CPA and lawyer.

Our estimate of how much of each season is spent on the road, by league:

NFL

11%

NBA

31%

WNBA

24%

MLB

40%

NHL

31%

MLS

15%

These come from each league's schedule: road games times the usual days per trip, divided by the duty days from training camp to the last regular season game. NFL road share is small because most duty days are practice days at home.

What it does not do

It does not know your exact schedule, playoff games, or which trips you made.
It does not include investment income, endorsements, deferred pay, or itemized deductions.
City taxes where you live (like New York City) are only included for Maryland counties.
NBA escrow is shown separately because part of it usually comes back.
Union dues are not included; unions do not publish a per-player amount.

League rules we use

NFL: agent cap 3% (reported); 2026 minimum $885,000.
NBA: agent cap 4% (verified); 2026 minimum $1,357,763.
WNBA: agent cap 5% (uncertain); 2026 minimum $270,000.
MLB: agent cap none published by the union (reported); 2026 minimum $780,000.
NHL: agent cap none published by the union (reported); 2026 minimum $850,000.
MLS: agent cap none published by the union (uncertain); 2026 minimum $113,400.

Sources

Numbers last checked September 2026. See the disclaimer.