As contract clauses go, this one is pretty painful: Packers guard Sean Rhyan missed out on $2m after falling two snaps shy of picking up a bonus. The NFL has a built-in bonus pool designed to reward late draftees who see the field early in their careers. One of those performance benchmarks is a player’s volume of snaps. If they cross the 35% mark, they receive a chunky bonus. But Rhyan fell two snaps shy of that mark last season, missing the chance to see his base salary more than double.
The performance escalator is one of the quirks of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. With the CBA, rookie pay scale and hard salary cap, the NFL is typically a less chaotic contractual league than others in North America. There are none of the odd riders in players’ contracts – the unlimited sushi, 30-year contracts, or Springsteen guarantees – that litter other sports. Careers are short. Leverage is fleeting. The language is standardized. However, Rhyan’s situation is far from a one-off.
The homework clause
Few positions in sports are as mentally taxing as quarterback. They have to ID and break down tricky coverages and deliver throws on target and in rhythm. It requires thousands of physical and mental reps.
Peyton Manning could squeeze in upwards of 40 hours of extra tape study a week, leading to an arms race among young quarterbacks keen to show they were keeping up with the best. When he was drafted No 1 overall by the Rams, Jared Goff was so overwhelmed by the demands of the position that he built a film-watching bunker in his home.
“I watch tape all day Monday, all day Tuesday, Wednesday we practice, Thursday we practice, Friday we practice, then I come home and watch film, then Saturday before the game, I watch film, and then Sunday morning, I watch film,” Tom Brady said in 2022. “It’s almost soothing. I can go four or five hours without getting up from the chair.”
But not everyone is so … dedicated. Or at least their team doesn’t trust that they have Brady’s inner drive. In 2022, the Cardinals signed Kyler Murray to a five-year, $230m extension, making him the second-highest-paid player in the league. As part of the contract, the Cardinals included an “independent study” clause that mandated Murray watch four hours of film a week, independent of the team. Arizona planned to include a tracker in their team-issued tablet to ensure Murray’s focus was on the game tape, rather than movies or video games. The addendum allowed the Cardinals to terminate Murray’s contract if he didn’t complete his homework.
Why would you hand $230m to a player you weren’t sure was doing the bare minimum for the position? Good question! After the news leaked, the Cardinals decided to remove the clause. But the stain still lives on; Murray continues to be hit with allegations that he isn’t as focused or engaged as the position’s elite, despite ripping off the best season of his career in 2024.
The Dez Rules
Jerry Jones operates in a league of his own. In his 36 years as the Cowboys’ owner, no one has given more leeway to rogue personalities. But no one has enforced such strict rules, either.
Some of the most intense treatment was reserved for Dez Bryant. After his 2011 arrest for assault, the Cowboys had their budding star receiver sign a “security agreement” to try to rein in his off-the-field activity. The team did not officially change Bryant’s contract, but he signed a three-year, four-page agreement with longtime Cowboys fixer David Wells. The “Dez Rules” set out a series of guidelines:
Bryant would be followed by a three-person security detail whenever he was away from the Cowboys’ training base.
The Bryant episode was not Jones’s first use of team-mandated security details – or the most invasive. “No, this is [not] the strictest at all,” Jones said in 2012. Adam “Pacman” Jones and Tank Johnson signed similar agreements with the team. But Pacman’s was voided after he was suspended by the league for getting into a fight with his own bodyguard.
by Oliver Connolly, The Guardian | Read more:
Few positions in sports are as mentally taxing as quarterback. They have to ID and break down tricky coverages and deliver throws on target and in rhythm. It requires thousands of physical and mental reps.
Peyton Manning could squeeze in upwards of 40 hours of extra tape study a week, leading to an arms race among young quarterbacks keen to show they were keeping up with the best. When he was drafted No 1 overall by the Rams, Jared Goff was so overwhelmed by the demands of the position that he built a film-watching bunker in his home.
“I watch tape all day Monday, all day Tuesday, Wednesday we practice, Thursday we practice, Friday we practice, then I come home and watch film, then Saturday before the game, I watch film, and then Sunday morning, I watch film,” Tom Brady said in 2022. “It’s almost soothing. I can go four or five hours without getting up from the chair.”
But not everyone is so … dedicated. Or at least their team doesn’t trust that they have Brady’s inner drive. In 2022, the Cardinals signed Kyler Murray to a five-year, $230m extension, making him the second-highest-paid player in the league. As part of the contract, the Cardinals included an “independent study” clause that mandated Murray watch four hours of film a week, independent of the team. Arizona planned to include a tracker in their team-issued tablet to ensure Murray’s focus was on the game tape, rather than movies or video games. The addendum allowed the Cardinals to terminate Murray’s contract if he didn’t complete his homework.
Why would you hand $230m to a player you weren’t sure was doing the bare minimum for the position? Good question! After the news leaked, the Cardinals decided to remove the clause. But the stain still lives on; Murray continues to be hit with allegations that he isn’t as focused or engaged as the position’s elite, despite ripping off the best season of his career in 2024.
The Dez Rules
Jerry Jones operates in a league of his own. In his 36 years as the Cowboys’ owner, no one has given more leeway to rogue personalities. But no one has enforced such strict rules, either.
Some of the most intense treatment was reserved for Dez Bryant. After his 2011 arrest for assault, the Cowboys had their budding star receiver sign a “security agreement” to try to rein in his off-the-field activity. The team did not officially change Bryant’s contract, but he signed a three-year, four-page agreement with longtime Cowboys fixer David Wells. The “Dez Rules” set out a series of guidelines:
Bryant would be followed by a three-person security detail whenever he was away from the Cowboys’ training base.
- He would be driven to and from practice by Cowboys personnel.
- He would attend two mandated counselling sessions a week.
- He was banned from drinking alcohol.
- He was barred from attending strip clubs, given a midnight curfew, and only allowed to attend clubs where veteran Cowboys security staffers moonlighted as door staff.
The Bryant episode was not Jones’s first use of team-mandated security details – or the most invasive. “No, this is [not] the strictest at all,” Jones said in 2012. Adam “Pacman” Jones and Tank Johnson signed similar agreements with the team. But Pacman’s was voided after he was suspended by the league for getting into a fight with his own bodyguard.
by Oliver Connolly, The Guardian | Read more:
Image: Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
