One last try…

Years 1-4: Contract – 5 years, 23m of which 4m = signing bonus and approximately 4m per year in salary/incentives.

Signing bonus – 4m
4 years of salary – 2m
2002 incentives – 4m
2003 incentives – 2m

Total 12m

Years 5, 6, 7 and 8: Contract – 7 years, 64m of which 16m = signing bonus and approximately 7m per year in salary/incentives (which only became highly incentive laden when he restructured after the first two years.

Signing bonus – 16m
Year 5 – salary/assume incentives met – 7m
Year 6 – salary/assume some incentives missed – 5m
Year 7 – salary/assume incentives met – 7m
Year 8 – salary/roster bonus – 4m

Total – 39m
Add the 12m from years 1-4 and you get $51m.

Year 5 and 7 he only missed a total of 3 starts and the team made the playoffs so it is reasonable to assume incentives were met. Year 6, he may not have met the incentives, but remember that the deal was only restructured to be more incentive based AFTER that year.

I believe the above is conservative and proves conclusively my original comment that Chad earned closer to $50m than $25m in his seven years with the Jets.

The term guaranteed is self explanatory, however you must keep in mind that Pennington started in less than half of all his games in the first five years with the Jets. That said, I find it very hard to believe that he earned more than half of the incentive and bonus money. If you count all the guarentee $ per year earned, and half of the Bonus, he still doesnot make anywhere near $50 million.

Pennington’s rookie deal was for five years and up to $23m with a $4.1m signing bonus. It was highly incentive laden, so he would only have met those incentives in 2002 and some of them in 2003 (but would have received a basic salary in those years. Obviously year 5 became year one of the new contract. It would appear on this basis that the $8m I used in my crude analysis above is probably overly prudent. Probably closer to $12m, maybe more.

Source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E6DB163BF937A25754C0A9669C8B63&scp=3&sq=pennington%20rookie%20contract&st=cse

For 2007, I said above that he received about $4m in bonuses and about $3m in reduced salary for 2007. I now found out that he received $2m in salary and $2m in bonuses for that year and the other $2m of bonuses must have been a roster bonus in an earlier year. So I was, I think, $1m out on that year.

Source:
http://www.jetscentral.com/?p=720

I’m not quite sure I can navigate thru this BUT, It was a mouthfull. I will get back to you as soon as I digest it.

Your interpretation was wrong because of two main misconceptions.

1. You cannot reduce the amount of guaranteed money in a contract when you restructure it. This is illegal in the collective bargaining agreement. So, that $23m of guarantees was definitely received by Chad (as previously stated $16m of this was a signing bonus. When he restructured, the $3m of guarantees was from that point on and couldn’t be less than what he was due to receive anyway.

2. You state that he probably didn’t earn any of these incentives. This is inaccurate because most of them would be for things like lasting the whole season without going on injured reserve, starting every game, making the playoffs. The Jets structured it this way so that they were NLTBE (not likely to be earned) incentives, which means they hit the following year’s cap if attained. In 2006, he met every one. In 2007, he missed a few. Remember the contract was not highly incentivized until after 2005, so he would have earned his salary in each of those first 5 years with the team and met the incentives to earn all the money he would have been due in year six.

Most of the sources I use only report on current deals, so I am using my own records to substantiate this, but – crudely, Chad earned about (say) $8m in years 1-4, then got a signing bonus of $16m, would have earned his salary in 2004, 2005 and his incentives for 2006 at around $6m per year, plus another $4m in bonuses and about $3m in reduced salary in 2007. These are approximate figures, but I make that $49m.

Not sure what this proves, but just wanted to reassure you that I’m not blowing smoke!

Ok, well and good, let me know where I can see this accurate and correct info because I canvased most NFL official web sites and I can’t find anything to substantiate you argument. PLEASE!

As you know, we have to become Sherlock Holmes with a team of lawyers to find straight forward info on NFL player contracts but, I was able to find some and here goes:

1) Having been drafted # 18 in 2000 I haven’t been able to find his rookie contract but I did find Tim Couch #1 overall 1999 draft, Heisman winner, signed for 7yr / $14.5 million.

2)In 2004 Pennington re-signed an extension through 2011 for $64 million contract with only $23 million guaranteed

3)In 2006 Chad then re-structured that contract to receive $3 million guaranteed with $6 million in incentives.

4) In 2007 Chad received slightly more than $4 million for the year and last, as we all know, he signed 2yr/$11.5 million contract with Miami.

Bent, like I said, it is hard, but if you do the math and consider that it is HIGHLY unlikely that Pennington received ANY if the incentive $ or bonus $ becaude of all his “down” time (down as in sideline observer) his total salary with the Jets, Pennington did not earn more than $ 25 million for his painfull stay with the Jets.

As you know, we have to become Sherlock Holmes with a team of lawyers to find straight forward info on NFL player contracts but, I was able to find some and here goes:

1) Having been drafted # 18 in 2000 I haven’t been able to find his rookie contract but I did find Tim Couch #1 overall 1999 draft, Heisman winner, signed for 7yr / $14.5 million.

2)In 2004 Pennington re-signed an extension through 2011 for $64 million contract with only $23 million guaranteed

3)In 2006 Chad then re-structured that contract to receive $3 million guaranteed with $6 million in incentives.

4) In 2007 Chad received slightly more than $4 million for the year and last, as we all know, he signed 2yr/$11.5 million contract with Miami.

Bent, like I said, it is hard, but if you do the math and consider that it is HIGHLY unlikely that Pennington received ANY if the incentive $ or bonus $ becaude of all his “down” time (down as in sideline observer) his total salary with the Jets Pennington did not actually earn more than $ 25 million for his painfull stay with the Jets.