Looks like Aaron Hernandez did not read the fine print in his NFL contract; in the sports league's 2011 contract negotiations, they inserted language that states players would have to pay back their signing bonus if they were imprisoned or suspended.
This means if the ongoing investigation of a death allegedly connected Hernandez leads to his imprisonment, the New England Patriots' tight end will have to pay about $37 million dollars back to the team.
USA Today reported Hernandez is "in the midst of a five-year contract extension through the 2018 season that he signed last summer." He received a $12.5 million signing bonus with the current deal.
The CBA added the imprisonment clause when the New York Giants learned a very important lesson.
"In 2008, the Giants tried to withhold a $1 million payment of Plaxico Burress' signing bonus after he shot himself in the thigh," USA Today reported. "The NFL Players Association and the league went before a special master, with the Giants arguing Burress' actions should've voided the guarantee on his signing bonus."
Burress fought back against the NFL's actions, and in the end the Giants were ordered to pay the $1 million remaining of his signing bonus. After this situation, the NFL wanted to strengthen the language of the contracts and accomplished their goal in the 2011 negotiations.
According to USA Today, the CBA now states a player commits a "forfeitable breach" when he "willfully fails to report, practice or play" while healthy, retires, suffers an injury due to "an activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury" or "is unavailable to the team due to conduct by him that results in his incarceration."
If the legal situation worsens, Hernandez may reportedly lose up to $10 million of his signing bonus, depending on the amount of time he would be incarcerated or suspended.
No arrest warrant has been issued for Hernandez. The death of his friend Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-professional football player, is still under investigation.
"It's hard to say at this point what he's going to lose," former player agent Joel Corry, now a contract and salary-cap analyst for the National Football Post and CBSSports.com, told USA Today. "But even if he's not charged, it should trigger a suspension under the personal conduct policy."
