DJrmb":46km6sg2 said:
Do you just make stuff up to go with your arguments or have you actually read somewhere something that made you think this???
The Seahawks have retained Lynch’s contract rights while he’s been on their reserve/retired list through 2017 under the contract extension he signed before the 2015 season. That deal included a $7.5 signing bonus. Lynch would be, according to letter of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, subject to paying back the 2016 proration on that signing bonus, a sum of $2.5 million for the season he was “retired.”
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... rylink=cpy
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but as far as I understand it you're reading that incorrectly.
For the sake of argument and to keep things clean let's just pretend that Lynch applies for and gets reinstated.
2016: Lynch was retired. 2.5 million of his signing bonus from his last deal was allocated to the 2016 season. Teams usually let their older and star players keep that bonus money when they retire, but right now Lynch technically owes the Seahawks 2.5 million. We totally absolutely agree on that. It's also what your quoted source above is saying.
2017: Lynch applies for and gets reinstatement. Because he was retired the 2016 year of his contract did not accrue, so the 2016 year applies to this year, now that he's off the retired list. For contract purposes the year of retirement just didn't happen -- the Hawks still own his rights under the same terms as they would have if he had not been retired in 2016. The NFL does this so that players can't just retire to avoid a contract and then come back from retirement "out" from that contract.
So, once Lynch gets reinstated the Seahawks owe him (1) his base salary from what would have been his 2016 year had he not been retired (which I think, but could be wrong, is 9 million) and (2) the pro-rated amount of his signing bonus for the 2016 year (the 2.5 million which they already paid him).
They can only hold the signing bonus over his head if he doesn't want to be reinstated
If he does want to be reinstated he's back on the Seahawks with what would have been his 2016 contract had he not reitred:
that signing bonus is fully his and they owe him the base salary from his contract.
FWIW I know about this because a similar thing happened last year with Bam Davis but in reverse (Davis retired two years ago at the age of 25 and Baalke made him pay back his signing bonus. Then when Davis briefly unretired last summer Baalke tried to not give him that non-accrued year of signing bonus back, which is why Davis hates him. It never got to the NFLPA because Davis retired again too quickly but Baalke would have 100% lost and he knew it. He was just being a jerk (or maybe suspected that Davis was going to grab the bonus money and then retire again and make Baalke chase him for it, which coulda happend, because Davis is a nut.)