This is a contract????

Hoo boy.  Someone needs to explain to my anonymous friend why this is legal.

My friend pointed out this Deadspin article, explaining the contract of Philadelphia's backup quarterback, Nick Foles.

It's a five-year deal, maximum of $27.5 million.

Except:  After two years, if he's on the Eagles roster 23 days before the start of the 2019-2020 league year (the article estimates mid-February), he's off the roster -- the contract is VOID!!!!

WHAT????

We can only think of two alternatives:

• The Eagles, needing Foles as a backup, put a nice signing bonus in the contract and would much rather chew on the salary cap hit for three years (the last 3/5 of it goes in when the contract voids) than eat it in two...
• or his agent is trying to rip him off -- does the agent get his percentage of what his client is paid, or the maximum on the contract?

There's no way this should be legal, but the NFLPA isn't a fucking union at all.  It's a sellout scam operation for the owners.

Tyrod Taylor of the Bills has the same operation.  Five-year deal, void after two.

It's the only way the Jets would put up with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

You want to know how bad it is for the NFL players right now?

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated's MMQB blog reported that, in the first 15 days of the new NFL year (starting March 7), there were 206 signed contracts reported to the NFLPA.

Only 24 had at least $3,000,000 in guaranteed money past this year.

Basically, the lesser players are being put out of the league, to be replaced with new lessers.  One way the Deadspin article notes this is with language in the CBA which would allow a player in a multiyear contract to be guaranteed half of next year's money if he's injured in the final game of the previous season.

Hence, unless you are elite or have a Q-rating, no more multi-year contracts.

And then there's the rollover clause, which basically allows the teams to roll cap space into future years in four-year increments, meaning the teams, with free agency basically done, have three-quarters of a billion dollars in cap space.

You're about to see far fewer veteran players in this league.  Unless you are elite and have a following, you have no real use to your massahs.