The Guardian: Injury pay cuts and limited leverage: five brutal truths about NFL
UC study cited regarding NFL contracts and how players actions, on and off the field
An obvious injury on the football field, such as we saw with Buffalo Bills' safety Damar Hamlin, can sideline a player for a game, weeks, or indefinitely. How this affects their health is of primary concern, but financial setbacks come into play as well, according to an in-depth article on NFL contacts in "The Guardian."
The article outlines how NFL contacts are tailored to the individual player and risk assessment; and it’s not only what they do on the field that can have financial caveats. Riding a motorcycle, for example, might be forbidden in the contact and any injuries from an accident might be cause for breach of contract.
Behaviors can impact player finances as well, says UC political scientist David Niven, an associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs cited in the article.
What Niven found is that after the national anthem kneeling protests against racial inequality, “a far greater percentage of protesters [than non-protesters] received a salary cut, that protesters’ overall salaries grew at a notably slower rate, and that protesters were vastly more likely to be sent to another team.”
Featured image at top courtesy of Unsplash.
Impact Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
UC archaeologist receives 2026 Athens Prize
May 13, 2026
University of Cincinnati archaeologist Jack L. Davis received the 2026 Athens Prize from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens during its annual gala May 7 at Gotham Hall. The award recognizes scholars whose work has significantly advanced knowledge of ancient Greece, a distinction that reflects Davis’ decades-long impact on the field of Aegean archaeology.
‘GangTok’: Study provides insights about the presence of gang culture on Tiktok
May 12, 2026
John Leverso, an assistant professor in the UC School of Criminal Justice, is lead author of the research, 'GangTok: Street gang content, culture, and roleplay on TikTok' published recently in Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal.
Is there anything to fear from Hantavirus?
May 12, 2026
The University of Cincinnati's Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the College of Medicine, recently appeared on Scott Sloan's show on 700 WLW to share facts surrounding Hantavirus.