Adrian Peterson May Be Suspended, But He's Unlikely To Lose Any Pay - Forbes.com

http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2014/11/18/adrian-peterson-suspension-is-all-about-perception-of-nfl/


The NFL has recently announced that Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson will be suspended for the remainder of the 2014 season, without pay. Peterson will likely earn his full pay for the entire 2014 NFL. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) published a statement immediately after the NFL’s announcement of a stern punishment against Peterson. The NFLPA will appeal Peterson's suspension. This is important because Peterson will continue to be paid during the pendency of his appeal.

The NFL will look like they did the right thing by suspending him without pay, but in reality he is still getting paid. Peterson will continue to get paid. Meanwhile, the NFL will look like it took strong action against the running back.

From an economic stand point it was very smart of the NFL to suspend Peterson and "appear" to suspend him without pay. If the NFL appeared to be soft with the punishment there would be a massive response from NFL fans and non NFL fans, and it would not be a good one. Less people would watch the NFL games, attend games, and buy NFL apparel.

Stanton wanted flexibility for Marlins - ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11897600/giancarlo-stanton-325m-miami-marlins-heavily-backloaded

Giancarlo Stanton has agreed to a 13 year 325 million dollar contract with the Miami Marlins. He has the option to opt out of his contract after 6 years. If he were to do this he would be walking away from 218 million dollars. Stanton still wants to give his team financial flexibility. He would be getting paid 25 million dollars a year every year. Instead Stanton is going to back load is contract. That means he will be getting paid around 9 million dollars his first three years. His last couple of years he will be getting paid more than 25 million dollars a year.

Stanton is getting a guaranteed 107 million dollars his first six seasons. Then he has the option to leave the team. If Stanton feels like the Marlins didn't bring in enough people to build a championship contending team, he will leave. He would be walking away from the majority of his guaranteed money by doing so. 

This was a really smart decision by Stanton. Stanton left himself with a lot of options. Stanton obviously wants to stay with the Marlins after agreeing to back load his contract. Giving the Marlins financial flexibly gives the team a better chance to improve. There is now a good chance of that happening with the money freed up by the back loading.