Dear NFL: Guarantee your contracts

Players put their bodies on the line — even their lives — with little assurance they'll be paid if they get hurt

Damar Hamlin

When a Major League baseball player signs a contract, whether for one year or 10, that contract is guaranteed. If he blows out his knee or his arm on Day 1, he gets paid.

As he should. Players sign on the promise of performing to the best of their abilities, and maintaining compensation for workplace injuries are part of the bargain employers make.

Then there’s the National Football League.

When it comes to the best professional American football players in the world, guaranteed contracts are a perk, not a right.

That’s the case even though the average length of an NFL career is fewer than four seasons.

One month ago, on January 2, a nation watched Damar Hamlin fight for his life. And to a nation’s relief, he survived. But at the time he was in the ICU, there was zero guarantee that Hamlin would be paid the remaining two years of the four-year, $3.6 million contract he signed in 2021.

Additionally, as Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic noted, Hamlin is still a year shy of qualifying for an NFL pension or for “the five years of post-retirement health insurance.”

In the case of Hamlin — and given the coverage around him, it would be hard to imagine otherwise — an agreement has been worked out to ensure he is paid the remaining $1,995,000 for the final two seasons of his deal. But he is the exception that proves the mindless blindness of the rule.