FOF: If a player retires are you responsible for the bonus money?

[jbmagic]

FOF:


If a player retires early before there contract expires are you responsible for the bonus that remains for the years left?

[Pyser]

yep.

[stevew]

Its all advanced to the current season as well?

[SegRat]

All right, how exactly does that salary cap work? I'm running out of cap money, and I have no idea where it all went.

What you have to remember about the cap is that once you pay a player a bonus, that money belongs to the player. Forever.

Even if you renegotiate a contract, release the player or trade him, you are still responsible for that original bonus.

The tricky thing about bonuses is that they don't count under the cap all at once. Let's say you sign Bob to a five-year deal with a $10 million bonus. While Bob gets all $10 million immediately, it only counts as $2 million under the cap - each of the five years.

Now, let's say you're in the second year of the contract and you release or trade Bob. You're still responsible for that bonus money. It'll still count $2 million under the cap for the second year. But the remaining $6 million will all count against the cap in the third year.

Even if you want to renegotiate a contract, you still have to deal with that remaining bonus money. That's why you almost never see renegotiations or trades early in a big long-term contract.

If you're confused right now, you're not alone. Professional teams hire a cap coordinator whose sole job is learning these rules and tracking cap money down to the last penny. Once you have a little experience working with the cap in Front Office Football, you'll get used to the cap.

[jbmagic]

segrat

does that include players that retire too?

i understand if you release or trade the remaining bonus your responsible for it.

[SegRat]

yes, also includes if the player retires.

[jbmagic]

thanks

wow, can you imagine a nfl rookie comes in the league and the owner gives him 25 mil bonus contract for 5 years and the next day the player says i am retiring.

he will get the whole 25 mil dollars bonus and not even play one game in the nfl.

but i suppose in the NFL, they have clauses in the contract to protect themselves

[Alf]

Ryan Leaf ? Akili Smith ? Curtis Enis ? Rick Mirer ?

[MIJB#19]

Akili Smith didn't retire, he played in NFL Europe the past spring. :D

[Ben E Lou]

When you acquire a player via trade, you are not responsible for any of his bonus. But when a player leaves your team, you are still responsible for the entire remaining bonus..

[Icy]

What about the R.Williams issue? it's said that he had to return some money to the Dolphins and that made him come back to play.

[Ben E Lou]

What about the R.Williams issue? it's said that he had to return some money to the Dolphins and that made him come back to play.Sure, that's real life. In FOF, guys with good potential do not retire early in their careers apart from CEIs.

[Icy]

Sure, that's real life. In FOF, guys with good potential do not retire early in their careers apart from CEIs.

Ah ok, i was confussed as i thought this conversation was about FOF and real life too. So in real life, if a player retires without any injury reason, does he need to return part of the bonus?

[Samdari]

Ah ok, i was confussed as i thought this conversation was about FOF and real life too. So in real life, if a player retires without any injury reason, does he need to return part of the bonus?

Depends. Most NFL contracts are desigened to be "cap friendly" in the early years. They are intended by both the team and player to be, say 2 or 3 years, but signed for 5 so the bonus can be prorated over 5 years instead of the 2 that both parties know the player will play. When the player then retires after two years, teams don't try to get the bonus back. When they walk away from years the team thought they would play (Ricky Williams and Barry Sanders) they can try to get the money back.