The fabulous (and athletic) life of pro sports power couple Kelsey Plum and Darren Waller
Meredith Cash
- Kelsey Plum is a WNBA All-Star guard who won the 2022 championship with the Las Vegas Aces.
- Darren Waller is an NFL tight end and 2020 Pro Bowler who plays for the New York Giants.
Kelsey Plum and Darren Waller are two of the most talented athletes in American professional sports.
The all-time leading scorer in Division I women's college basketball history, Plum has become a WNBA superstar and helped lead the Las Vegas Aces to their first-ever championship during the 2022 season. Waller, meanwhile, enjoyed a standout career as Georgia Tech's leading wide receiver before becoming one of the top tight ends in the NFL.
The pair of superstars got married — almost in secret — on March 4, 2023, officially forming one of the most notable young power couples in all of sports. And with all that talent has come plenty of compensation.
Here's how the duo makes and spends their millions:
Kelsey Plum and Darren Waller are one of the most powerful young couples in professional sports — and you may not have even known they were together.
Plum is a star guard in the WNBA. Five years after the San Antonio Stars selected the prolific scorer with the first overall pick of that year's WNBA Draft, Plum helped the franchise — now known as the Las Vegas Aces — win their first-ever championship.
Waller, meanwhile, is one of the most talented tight ends in the entire NFL. First drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2015, the 6-foot-6 star played three years in Maryland before joining the Oakland-turned-Las Vegas Raiders. He's now a member of the New York Giants.
The superstars were rumored to have started dating in 2022, though Waller was spotted attending Plum's games with the Aces as far back as 2021.
Plum and Waller presumably met at some point after the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas, though it's not public knowledge at this point.
The couple has kept much of their relationship under wraps. As late as a few weeks before their wedding, the pair were not officially confirmed to be romantically involved.
They've only made a handful of public appearances over the course of their relationship.
—T-Mobile Arena (@TMobileArena) May 30, 2022
Waller and Plum were spotted at an All Elite Wrestling event in May 2022 in what may have been their first public showing as a couple.
The following month, Plum brought Waller to an Aces event spotlighting the 50th anniversary of Title IX.
In addition to appearing at each other's games, the couple attended the inaugural IX Awards together at Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium in June 2022.
After Plum helped the Aces to the 2022 WNBA title, Waller attended the victory parade in Las Vegas.
—Drew Andre (@DrewJandre) September 21, 2022
Waller was spotted using his cell phone to film from the back of the stage as Plum made a speech to the raucous crowd.
In October, the pair took in a San Diego Padres game together.
But it was unconfirmed whether the duo were just friends or something more — until a third party spilled the beans.
Though many suspected that Plum and Waller were dating by the time 2023 came around, the duo had not confirmed their relationship publicly. Very few people beyond their close friends and family knew they were planning a wedding — one they had no intention of telling fans about until well after they said "I do."
Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels accidentally leaked their wedding details — the date, city, and the fact that it was taking place at all — to the press during the NFL Scouting Combine.
Waller was reportedly upset with his then-head coach for publicizing what had been, up to that point, a secret wedding. It made matters worse, according to The Athletic's Vic Tafur, that the Las Vegas Review-Journal then ran a story using McDaniels as its source.
Just three days later, the couple tied the knot.
The two seemed destined to live happily ever after as the King and Queen of Las Vegas, but their plans changed when the Raiders traded Waller to the New York Giants.
Plum and Waller are "going to do whatever it takes to remain strong together" despite their careers taking them to opposite coasts.
Fortunately for the newlyweds, the WNBA and NFL seasons don't take place at exactly the same time.
Plum will be expected to report to Las Vegas to rejoin the reigning champions at the end of April, with the WNBA regular season tipping off in mid-May and extending into the fall.
Waller, meanwhile, will have until the end of July before he's expected in New York for training camp. His season will run through the new year and, should the Giants make the playoffs, could stretch all the way to February.
But with millions of dollars in combined annual salary, the pair should have no problem affording plane tickets for the times they aren't able to reside together.
Plus, the Giants will head out to Las Vegas to face Waller's former team, the Raiders, at some point during the 2023 season. And Plum and her Aces will head to Brooklyn to face the new-look New York Liberty on two separate occasions in August.
Waller became one of the highest-paid tight ends in the NFL after signing a three-year, $51 million deal with the Raiders in September 2022.
The massive contract gave Waller $17 million in average annual salary, but he brings in additional income through several ventures tangential to and outside of his football career.
He also makes a considerable amount of money through endorsement deals with a slew of companies.
And as the great-grandson of jazz legend Fats Waller, the football star has a foot in the music industry, too.
With a great-grandfather who pioneered modern jazz — and composed two Grammy Hall of Fame songs in "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose" — Waller was destined to find a foothold in music, too. The tight end doubles as a music producer, though, unlike his great grandpa Fats, Waller's preferred genre is hip-hop.
He's dropped two albums — "Delusions of Clarity" and "Walking Miracle" — since 2021 and told Andscape, "Music provides such a balance from the football."
He also said music was "definitely a part of my healing process."
Waller long struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but after committing to his recovery, he started a foundation to help at-risk youth avoid and overcome their addictions.
Waller began using Oxycontin at just 15 years old. As he got older, he grew more dependent on opioids and various other substances — alcohol, cocaine, and an assortment of pills.
"I was spending like almost $100 on pills a day towards the very end of my using," Waller told The New York Post.
In 2017 — three years into his NFL career and just a few months after he was suspended from play for a year for breaking the league's substance abuse policy — Waller overdosed while sitting in his parked car. The near-death incident was a "turning point" for the then-24-year-old, he told the Las Vegas Sun.
Waller went to rehab, got a fresh start with the Raiders, and has maintained his sobriety. And in the years since, he's founded "The Darren Waller Foundation" to help youth "avoid and overcome addiction to drugs and alcohol and support youth and their families during their recovery and treatment journey."
Despite his considerable income, Waller doesn't appear to lead a particularly lavish lifestyle.
Like her husband, Plum is one of the highest-paid athletes in her sport.
Just a week after Plum earned MVP honors at the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game, she and the Aces agreed to a contract extension to keep her in Vegas through the 2024 season.
Though the team didn't disclose the exact terms of the deal, Her Hoops Stats reports that she'll make $200,000 in base salary each of the next two years. Spotrac says that figure makes Plum the 21st highest-paid player in the WNBA.
The point guard has racked up many endorsement deals with top brands.
Since leaving the Washington Huskies as the top scorer in Division-I women's college basketball history, Plum has landed many lucrative partnerships off the court. She's recently signed a deal to become one of the faces of Under Armour and even appeared in a commercial alongside Steph Curry and South Carolina's women's basketball team.
Plum also starred in a State Farm ad alongside JJ Redick that ran throughout March Madness. Additionally, she's an ambassador for fashion brand GSTQ, Google, American Express, and others.
Like her husband, Plum appears to live a low-key life outside of the basketball world.
Sure, she works with an athlete stylist and often has a designer bag in-hand during her pre-game tunnel walks, but Plum doesn't appear to be a huge spender, either. Outside of ads and basketball content, Plum's Instagram mostly features images of the star spending time outside, enjoying the company of family and friends, spreading positivity, or giving back.
Despite their prominence in the sports world and significant income, Waller and Plum appear to have a level perspective on life.
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