NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement
Salary Cap Accounting Rules
Section 6(c)(xxv)Valuation of Player Contracts
Notwithstanding any provision in a Player Contract to the contrary or when such payments are actually made, the following rules shall apply in determining the amount of a player’s Salary that is to be included in Team Salary in a particular League Year for purposes of the Salary Cap:
To determine the value of an incentive clause for Salary Cap purposes, under either Subsection (xxi) or (xxiv) above, such incentive clauses will be valued using the Club’s performance in the prior season in lieu of the Club’s current season performance. Thus, for example, if a Club had 1,000 offensive plays “last season,” and an incentive clause were tied to a player’s participating in 50 percent of the Club’s offensive plays “this season,” the incentive would be deemed earned, for Salary Cap purposes only, as of the time the player participated in 500 offensive plays. Similarly, such an incentive would be deemed not earned, for Salary Cap purposes only, as of the time the player had not participated in a sufficient number of offensive plays so that the player could not achieve the incentive based on last year’s performance (e.g., had participated in only one of the Club’s 502 offensive plays). Nothing herein, however, shall affect the player’s contractual right to receive or not receive the specified incentive, based upon the performance level actually achieved during that year.