Loyalty doesn’t exist in the NFL.
However, Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Chris Godwin may beg to differ.
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Godwin re-signed with Tampa this offseason to the tune of a three-year, $66 million extension.
That averages out to $22 million per year.
Tampa’s offer was nowhere close to the highest or most lucrative, but it’s where his home was.
It’s the only NFL franchise he has ever known, since being drafted in the third round back in 2017.
Eight seasons later, a Super Bowl victory, an All-Pro and Pro Bowl berth, and a slew of records, Godwin remains loyal to the team that has remained loyal to him.
An extreme rarity of the highest kind in today’s NFL.
It’s why he reportedly declined the New England Patriots offer that would have given him an annual salary of $30 million, on a multiyear deal.
The once dominant New England dynasty that has been looking to retool and jumpstart another dynasty the last few seasons, had the cash to spend.
They shifted their attention towards Godwin.
And Godwin turned it away.
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“One opinion mattered to Godwin — his wife Mariah’s,” the Athletic’s Dan Pompei reported in an extensive article.
“They went over the possibilities and concluded they would take less, much less, to stay in Tampa.”
And so that’s what happened.
“If I ended up going to New England,” Godwin said.
“It would have been solely based off money because everything else was telling me to stay here.”
Godwin has formed one of the NFL’s most dangerous wide receiver duos in the league for the better part of the last decade, with star Mike Evans beside him.
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Godwin and Evans have enjoyed tremendous success with one another over the years.
Whether it was Tom Brady throwing them passes, or Baker Mayfield, or Jameis Winston, the two constants were the two wideouts.
And they aren’t going anywhere.
Tampa signed Evans to a two-year contract extension in March of 2024, keeping him on the roster for at least one more season.
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Albeit it’s hard to envision the most prolific wide receiver in franchise history going anywhere else after this year.
And Godwin doesn’t envision it either, stating how he believes they will be connected forever and their careers intertwined.
“When me and Mike are done, long gone from this organization, I think we’re going to look back on this time and say it was rare to have what we had,” Godwin told Pompei.
What the two have accomplished together is extremely rare.
But not as rare as Godwin’s loyalty to his one and only home.