Tyreek Hill Cited State Taxes When He Chose Miami Over the Jets. The $8 Million Gap Between Florida and New Jersey
When Tyreek Hill picked the Dolphins over the Jets, he said state taxes tipped the scales. The Tax Foundation ran the numbers on exactly how much a player's home state can shift a nine-figure contract, and the gap is larger…
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In October 2022, after Kansas City traded him, Tyreek Hill said the choice between Miami and the New York Jets came down partly to state income tax. Florida charges none. The team he passed on plays its home games in New Jersey, which does.
The Tax Foundation put a number on it that same month. In an October 4, 2022 analysis titled “Tyreek Hill’s Tax Liability with Every NFL Franchise,” the group estimated the gap between signing in Florida versus New Jersey at roughly $8 million over the life of his contract.
What Hill Actually Said in 2022
On his podcast that fall, Hill described weighing the Jets’ offer against Miami’s and pointed to state taxes as a tiebreaker. Florida is one of a small group of states with no individual income tax. The Tax Foundation’s 2025 State Tax Competitiveness Index ranks Florida 4th overall and ties it with Texas, Tennessee, Alaska, South Dakota, and Wyoming at rank 1 on individual income tax. New Jersey ranks 49th overall and 48th on individual income tax; New York ranks 50th overall and 50th on individual income tax.
A resident of Florida owes his home state nothing on wages. A resident of New Jersey owes New Jersey on everything, subject to credits for taxes paid elsewhere.
Jets Home Games Trigger New Jersey Tax
The New York Jets play home games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. For jock-tax purposes, the state that gets the home-game paycheck is New Jersey.
The jock tax is the informal name for how states tax visiting athletes on the portion of their salary earned inside state lines, usually calculated on “duty days.” A player who signs with the Jets pays:
- New Jersey resident tax on his worldwide income, because that is his home state.
- Nonresident tax to every other state that hosts a road game with an income tax, prorated by duty days there.
- A credit against New Jersey tax for what he paid those other states, so he is not taxed twice on the same dollars.
A Miami-based player flips the resident piece. Florida takes nothing. He still owes nonresident tax on road games in California, New York, Massachusetts, and any other income-tax state on the schedule, but his home slate and offseason income sit in a zero-rate jurisdiction.
How the $8 Million Gap Gets Built
Stack the pieces and the Tax Foundation’s estimate makes sense. Roughly half of an NFL season is home games, and a large share of guaranteed money, signing bonuses, and offseason workout pay is sourced to the team’s home state. Move the home state from New Jersey to Florida and that entire slice drops from a high-bracket rate to zero.
That is why the free-agent math for a receiver with nine-figure guarantees looks different from the free-agent math for a rookie on a minimum deal. The bigger the guaranteed money and the longer the term, the more the residency choice compounds.
What This Means for a Retiree Choosing a State
Strip away the yardage and the same engine runs for anyone with portable income. Social Security, pension distributions, IRA withdrawals, Roth conversions, and capital gains are all taxed first by your state of residence. A few points of state rate on a $120,000 retirement income stream, compounded over 25 years, is real money.
A few ground rules that rhyme with Hill’s decision:
- Residency is a facts test decided by where you actually live. States that lose a high earner audit domicile aggressively. Driver’s license, voter registration, primary home, doctors, and days-in-state all count.
- Pensions and IRAs generally get taxed by your state of residence when you take the money, regardless of where you earned it. That is the retiree version of Hill’s calculation.
- Some income-tax states carve out generous retiree breaks (pension exclusions, Social Security exemptions, property-tax freezes). The sticker rate is not the whole story.
- Cost of living eats part of the savings. Bureau of Economic Analysis data for 2024 puts Florida’s cost-of-living index at 103.414 and New Jersey’s at 108.805, both above the national average of 100.
Hill’s $8 million was a headline. The principle underneath is one worth running past a CPA or fiduciary planner before you sign a lease in a new state, especially in the five years around retirement when the residency decision locks in.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult a qualified tax professional about your specific situation.
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