With the NFL’s regular season set to begin next week, players around the league anxiously await the arrival of their first big game check of the season. For many rookies, who collect signing bonuses well before the season begins, their first check signifies what they hope to be a profitable and prosperous career on and off the field. This season’s NFL rookies, however, will be shocked to find out that the earnings for their first few games might as well be handed over to tax collectors – a fact of which veteran players are all too aware.

For players earning over $1 million in base salary per season, their federal income tax rate is 39.6 percent. Add with the additional 3.8 percent Medicare surtax levied with the passage of the Affordable Care Act – “Obamacare” – that’s a combined top marginal federal income tax rate of 43.4 percent. With that in mind, care to guess how many games they have to play to pay off the tax collectors?

The answer is a whopping seven games. That’s one game shy of half the regular season just to pay federal income taxes.

And that’s before factoring in state income tax liabilities for home games and “jock taxes” for away games. Depending on where the team is located and which teams they play this season, players could easily see their earnings for over half the season handed over to the various state and federal tax collectors.

For members of the Raiders, 49ers, and Chargers rosters, a total of eight games plus half a quarter must be played before they begin to earn for themselves rather than for the government, though even players in no-income-tax states such as Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington feel the sting.

This should outrage NFL players trying to earn a living playing the game they love.

While professional athletes making millions of dollars may not exactly be sympathetic figures, these high tax rates apply to the fans as well.

A middle-class fan making $45,000 a year may not be a member of the top tier of earners, but still has a federal income tax rate of 25 percent. That’s a tax liability of $11,250 taken out over the course of the year. If he resides in a no-income-tax state, this fan’s burden would be less than a fan living in California, paying an additional 8 percent for the state income tax, making the total tax liability $14,850. Over $3,000 more a year simply because an individual resides in a different state.