What is the break down of a nfl salary?

Question

I seen where players get a contract of several million dollars, but do they really get that amount? I would like to see what is the real dollar amount they make and how it is broke down in what has to be done to earn the whole amount.

Answer 1

In an NFL contract you have two main parts, the signing bonus and the yearly salary.

The signing bonus is the gauranteed portion of the contract. THat is the amount that the team is required to pay the player regardless if he stays with them or not. The only way that the team does not have to pay is if the player defaults on his end of the contract, i.e. Kellen Winslow putting himself in danger by doing stunts on a motorcycle or Ricky Williams smoking it up in the California mountains.

THe yearly salary is the part that the team has to pay the player is he is on the teams roster for that year. This part is not gauranteed as the player can be cut or traded.

There are also bonuses that can be added to the ocntract for players to increase their yearly salary. The most popular of these are roster bonuses where the player automatically gets a check for a pre-determined amount of money if the team decides that the player is too valuable to trade or release. Many players have these in their contract so that they can get more money throughout the contract to settle contract disputes and avoid potential hold outs. It is also beneficial because this money cna be immediately figured into the salary cap before the season starts and will not affect the following year's salary cap like other bonuses do. Then there are the performance bonuses which reward players for exceeding the team's expectations. Again this is to avoid potential contract disputes and trade requests.

As for how these contract affect the salary cap, that is some what confusing. Each team gets a certain amount of money from their collective bargaining agreements (CBA). A CBA is an agreement that the owners make with each other through the office of the commissioner where they agree how to divide up the revenue. Some teams are in bigger viewer and fan markets (NY, Washington) and some are in smaller markets (Buffalo, Green Bay). To make the league competitive and each team to have a fair chance at winning and being profitable, they agree what part of their revenue they want to share, i.e. ticket sales, tv contracts, merchandise. They also agree on what percentage is going to be spent on players' salaries. Then they submit it to the union (NFLPA) for their approval. If the NFLPA does not agree with some of the provisions, then they can reject it and the owners have to negotiate. If they do agree, then the CBA gets ratified by the league and the NFLPA for the length in the contract.

After each season, the league and the NFLPA sends its accountants out to determine the amount of revenue that the NFL made that year. They do keep track of this number throughout the year, but it does become official until the following February or March. Then, based on the percentage agreed to by the CBA, each team gets a figure that should be spent on players. This called a salary cap. A team cannot spend anymore than this on player personnel without there being harsh consequences such as fines and lawsuits levied by the league. When a team gets this amount they go through their players and find out how much they are either over or under. At this time, they must include any performance bonuses that each player received from the previous season along with all active signing bonuses that the team owes. For teams wanting to get under the cap, they can release a player who they think is expendable. Then only their bonus money will count against their cap. The yearly salary money does not count. Teams can also renegotiate with players to make the amount of money they were to receive smaller so that they will have more cap room. They do this usually by giving them an extension so that the bonus money can stretched out over a longer period of time or they can defer some the bonus money and yearly salary to the back end of the deal. Most players do not like this because most do not live out their entire contracts.

After they have renegotiated and released all the players they have to or want to, they can then go out and sign free agents to either help them win or fill in holes on their rosters.

That is basically how finances work in the NFL. There is a whole lot more to it, such as Franchise tags, but I don't have time.

Answer 2

This is rather complicated. Short answer -- a player may not see all of the money in a contract, but in reality it doesn't really matter.

Let's say Chuck Thurber (generic name) signs a 5-year, $50 million contract. For salary cap purposes, each of the five years is assigned $10 million. In real payouts, though, it's different. Thurber gets a $20 million signing bonus, payable immediately. The first year he'll only get a million in salary, to diminish the actual cost to the team (Chuck still gets $21 million, so he's doing OK.) He earns $10 million in 2008, $10 million in 2009, $5 million in 2010, and $4 million in 2011. He may get cut after the 2010 season, so he'll only see $46 million of the $50 million. Then again, he's free to sign with another team ... and may get more than $4 million on the open market. Even if he gets $6 million, it's a bargain for the signing team since Chuck was earning an average of $10 million per year.

There are plenty of incentive clauses -- some easily reached, some more outlandish. For cap purposes, they are split up that way. I believe the big ones, like league MVP, spill over to the next year if reached, since no one could count on being the league MVP. Getting 500 yards might be different.

Answer 3

it depends on the terms of the contract. many players have performance bonuses that increase the value of the contract. for example, a running back may receive an extra $50,000 if he rushes for 1500 yards. the numbers that get released are the base amount. that is what is guaranteed. unlike other sports though, football contracts are not guarnateed from year to year. a player can be cut from a team and he is not owed any money

Answer 4

It is different from player to player. You would have to see every players contract and those are usually "close hold" documents.
I am sure most contracts now have incentives for accomplishing certain things (make the probowl, score x amount of touchdowns or sacks) but I am sure plenty of the money is guaranteed too regardless of the type of season the player has.