And that is totally up to the negotiation between the player and the team, not as exist in the fantasy world most people speak of when they say all the leagues but the NFL has guaranteed contracts when in fact all the leagues have about the same contract guarantees in the base league rules.
Again, I disagree.
The NBA and MLB have collectively bargained that guaranteed contracts are the status quo. There are structural differences of course. e.g. MLB has the minor leagues, arbitration year players, and things like 45 day waivers negotiated into their CBA.
This recently cropped up when Ryan Wolf who had a major league contract contingent upon making the team, when he made the team was presented a contract with a 45 day waiver. But these are exceptional cases and not the guidelines for multi-year contracts with players. In fact in many cases the 45 day waiver would have been a violation of the MLB CBA (Ryan Wolf fit into a specially negotiated player class where such rules can apply; arbitration eligible players are in a similar sub-class with special rules related to pay and free agency). The NBA has similar situations (e.g. 10 day contract) but like MLB the
NBA CBA dictates that most multi-year contract structures must be fully guaranteed. This is an entitled right in the NBA that most veteran players qualify for.
About 90 percent of all NBA contracts are fully guaranteed for payment on the day that they are signed by the player. That player simply needs to show up for work and he'll get paid. He can lose his skill, be out of shape or for whatever reason perform poorly, yet his contract is secure. By comparison, only a small portion of NFL contracts are guaranteed at signing, mostly for the star players, and many of those long-term deals can be modified in the outer years, and players can be cut.
The reason 90% are guaranteed is a byproduct of the CBA. League CBA's regular max contract years, minimum and maximum salaries, when players become eligible for free agency, etc. Each league operates differently. e.g. in the NFL many veterans have their complete salary guaranteed if they make the roster and play in week one--this is not true of rookies signed off the street. (To contract the NBA has a January 10th guarantee date for single season non-guaranteed training camp contracts.) Note in the NBA you can only offer a training camp contract if you have 14 contracts without the non-guaranteed training camp contract clause.
These differences can be seen in the early years of contracts. The NBA CBA (
see R) guarantees the first 2 years of a rookie contract are guaranteed and year 3 and 4 are options, if exercised, are guaranteed. The options need to be taken after year one for option one (3rd year) and year two for option two (4th year). Furthermore all qualifying contracts must be fully guaranteed against performance and injury (3.a.b.3).
The NFL does not extend such guarantees to rookies and restricted free agents as mater of course. A rookie can be cut and ONLY his guaranteed money is paid. In the NFL 1st round rookies now have 5th year club options whereas earlier rounds do not. Some players are eligible for unrestricted free agency after 3 years, some 4. These are all contract nuances collectively bargained by the leagues independently.
The NFL allows guaranteed contracts but they are exceedingly rare--they are also NOT mandated for rookie contracts or for restricted free agents like the NBA. Thus all the talk of guaranteed money. There are special cases where single year contracts are guaranteed (e.g. tenders and tags) but these are nothing like what is found in other leagues.
Similar patterns and CBA protections are found in MLB. While, like the NBA, there are non-guaranteed contracts the bulk of multi-year contracts are guaranteed against injury or performance as the CBA guidelines dictate.
The TLDR is you need look no further than NBA rookie deals vs. the NFL and how first non-rookie contracts are handled. In the NBA rookie deals are guaranteed (as well as exercised options that are taken a whole season prior) as well as all Qualifying Offers. In the NFL a rookies signing bonus is the only guaranteed money required by the NFL CBA. And while a tendered restricted free agent has a guaranteed 1 year deal at the corresponding tender a tendered player (or unsigned/released player) signs with another team that contract is not guaranteed defacto. And rarely is. Which, again, is different from the other leagues where multi-year deals are almost always guaranteed per their respective CBA guidelines.
