NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement

Article 4
NFL Player Contract

Section 9(b)
Forfeiture of Salary

Players and Clubs may not agree upon contract provisions that authorize the Club to obtain a forfeiture of any Salary from a player except to the extent and in the circumstances provided in this Section 9. For the avoidance of doubt, Paragraph 5 Salary already earned may never be forfeited, and other Salary already earned may never be forfeited except as expressly provided herein. The maximum permitted forfeitures described below do not in any way obligate any player or Club to agree to any forfeiture.

(b)

Forfeitable Salary Allocations. For the purposes of this Section, the term “Forfeitable Salary Allocations” means: (i) for signing bonus, the Salary Cap allocation for the player’s signing bonus for that League Year; and (ii) for roster, option and reporting bonuses that are earned in the same League Year as the Forfeitable Breach, the allocation of such bonus for that League Year, out of the total amount of such bonus as allocated over that League Year and any remaining League Years in the player’s contract, notwithstanding the Salary Cap treatment of such bonuses. For example, without limitation, if a player has a $1 million roster bonus that is earned in the same year the player committed a Forfeitable Breach, then, regardless of when that roster bonus is to be paid, that bonus is attributable to the same year as the Forfeitable Breach; if the player has that year and one additional year remaining on his contract, then $500,000 of the roster bonus will be allocated to each of those years for purposes of any potential forfeiture calculation. If the Forfeitable Breach occurs in the second League Year in this example (i.e., the League Year after the roster bonus in this example is earned), there shall be no forfeiture of any portion of such roster bonus.