Do Incentive Clauses In Contracts Lead Players To Hide Injuries?

Football players love their job. You’ve got the option of playing the game you love for your teammates and organization that you’ve (probably) grown to like—plus a little more payday, OR sit out for yourself, receive no payment and possibly diminish your reputation around the NFL.
If I’m a player I go with the former if I’ve got the guts and the injury is nothing that could linger too badly.

Because you didn’t have a choice that included both money and playing. To get to this level these guys have to be cut throat competitors, so if they feel like they can play (even if they shouldn’t) they’re going to do everything they can to get out there.

There are quite a few players who would cover up the seriousness of an injury in order to achieve an incentive clause that was in (reasonable) reach. There are fewer who’d risk aggravating an injury for a clause that was a long shot. There’s also some (like Gonzo) who wouldn’t under any circumstances.
Guys who are backups are more likely to hide an injury for playing time than bedrock starters. They’ve more riding on staying on the field. A handfull of players still love playing as much as they did as kids and they’re more likely to hide an injury just because they want to play. They’re definitely in the minority, though after these players have been through star treatments at football powerhouse high schools, Division I colleges and NFL franchises. The celebrity and money seems to affect nearly every player to some extent. Just my two cents before I go off on another tangent…

Do athelets hide injuries to fulfill incentive clauses, yes. Do the teams and/or agents get these clauses inserted into contracts to get the most out of these players, yes. The real question is more whether or not the NFL as a business is doing enough to regulate what goes into these clauses and whether the teams are doing enough to make sure these players don’t have life long injuries because of their decisions on the field. In my opinion the NFL must know of the contracts and I simply cannot see a multi-billion dollar business not having the legal assets to properly oversee this kind of thing. They simply have a legal presedence of plausible denial. The teams on the other hand although do want to have their respective players putting 110% on the field every gamday. They also don’t want to see productive players ignoring injuries and jeoperdizing their long term career to fulfill their clauses. In the end it is up to the player and whether he thinks his body can physically handle the abuse and whether they should be able to call these types of things themselves. To me the clause does put pressure on players to hide injuries, but the NFL does make more money in return, and the player and team need to make the best decision for themsleves and the game.

And therefore, we’ll believe what we want to believe. Honestly, I don’t mean to be rude, but none us knows and shouldn’t pretend to know. Not only is it wrong to generalize any group of people, it’s also impossible for us to know the answer to this question. We can try philosophize about the subject and whatnot, but it doesn’t change that fact.

I also can see all of the scenarios play out. That said, I don’t think they should be removecd but adjusted to strickly Games Won! Only team achievements reward incentives.

You can only hide an injury for so long until somebody notices it. And usually it isn’t long at all

After a season is lost , in effect out of the playoff picture. Would the front office tell a coach to ensure that certain incentives in a players contract were not met? Lots of millions at stake once again.

Sppagnulo the new saints DC. DAMNIT

it depends I think on what the nature of the injury is and the player. For instance MT played nearly all last season with a groin injury that happened in the first weeks of the regular season. I doubt that he was close to any incentives at the time of his injury but most of us never knew about it. I do believe the team knew. So I would have to say that he just wanted to help his team win. And believe it or not I believe that’s the case with most of these athletes ie… T.O. the year the Eagles went to the SB. He was back on the field after the broken leg sooner than you’d think. Brett Favre has openly admitted to taking a cocktail of pain killers just so he could stay on the field. I don’t think anything was hidden from the team in any of these cases.

In short the monetary incentives matter but most of these guys just want to win. The money is just icing. I think their biggest incentive is just keeping a spot on the team. If you’ve ever played sports you don’t say no to your coach you let him tell you no. Kinda the same thing if you’re married. LOL

and picking my way through the responses I really don’t have much to offer on this subject except for, I understand why there are “Incentive Clauses” in player contracts and I am neither for or against them.

As far as players playing injured just to achieve a threshold to get said bonus…that’s on that player if they think risking millions of dollars a year with a possible career ending injury that could have been prevented just to hundreds of thousands out of a bonus. Just seems kind of stupid to me but I will never be faced with that situation so really, this is just my opinion anyway.

And, that’s how I see it…