ALASTAIR Clarkson can set his watch to the barrage of messages every year.  

As part of a long-standing promise for winning the 2014 flag, Clarkson owes the five-man Hawthorn leadership group a trip to the Super Bowl.

Originally locked in for the following year, the trip was denied over what would've been perceived as a breach of the salary cap with the four-time premiership coach "gifting" his players. 

And with each year that passes without the commitment being fulfilled, the reminders from captain Luke Hodge, Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Josh Gibson and Jarryd Roughead get more intense. 

"Every year in the lead-up to the Super Bowl I'm getting text messages from these five or six lads saying, 'Notice you haven't got an airline ticket booked for me this year'," Clarkson told AFL.com.au. 

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"It's very tentative at the minute, I think 2023 is in Phoenix and I'm just trying to work out the expense claim ... it's better (cheaper) if it's on the west coast than the east coast.

"It will grow in terms of the folklore of it and I'm a little bit embarrassed talking about it because it's just like, 'Is that an over-indulgence?'. 

"While it seems like a gesture that's a little bit over the top, it's quite sincere from my family's point of the view, as well as our club, just what contribution they made to the success of our footy club through that period of time."

Clarkson also revealed the Super Bowl agreement was borne out of a trip he and his wife provided for the wives of the 2013 premiership assistant coaches and key support staff. 

"They'd been such great supporters, the girls of our footy club for a long period of time, we had some tough times," he said. 

"We'd lost and had the disappointment of '12, (I told my wife) if we win the flag, I'll send you and all of the girls of the coaches on a trip overseas. So, of all places they picked New York. 

"And then the players got wind of the fact that I'd helped fund this trip of the girls to New York, they said, 'Could we do it?' I said, 'Yeah, we'll do it if we win in 2014, we'll go to the Super Bowl'.

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"I'm going to rue that because to their credit, the boys, they did win the flag in 2014 but I've now got this commitment.

"I had it all set-up to do the following year but then it wasn't allowed to be done because of the TPP (Total Player Payments) because it's looked as if it's gifting and that sort of stuff."

Given the TPP implications, Clarkson had to wait for all of the leadership members to depart Waverley Park before exploring the Super Bowl trip. 

Now the focus will centre on whether he'll still be at the club when the trip eventuates with his current contract in place until the end of 2022.