California swipes entire bonus from Super Bowl champs: NFL teams may want to decide if they make a run at the Super Bowl if the championship game is scheduled to be played in California. That's because the Golden State's tax code fleeces the players from their hard-earned cash. Thanks to the state's highest income taxes in the nation, many of the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks players, as well as the runner-up New England Patriots, are seeing their bonus payments sucked up by California taxes. For example, winning quarterback Sam Darnold, along with all his teammates, received a $188,000 bonus for the victory; however, under California's tax laws, Darnold owes the state an estimated $202,102 in taxes for the 10 days he worked in the state. To put this in perspective, two years ago, the Super Bowl was played in Las Vegas, Nevada, where there is no state income tax, and the players got to keep their full bonuses.