It has been widely reported and assumed that every player who is staying away from camp despite being under contract is incurring daily fines of $30,000.
That may not be the case.
Appearing on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning, Adam Schefter said that the $30,000-per-day price tag for staying away doesn’t begin until the CBA is ratified and the new League Year begins.
If true, that makes even more curious those reports out of Philly that Jackson would be caving as soon as Monday or Tuesday. (It’s now Thursday, and DeSean still hasn’t reported.)
The bigger question remains whether the deadline for reporting in time to receive a year of credit toward free agency lands on August 9 or 23 days after the start of the League Year. Eagles president Joe Banner told PFT Live on Monday that the subject was being debated by the NFL and the NFLPA. That’s the real deadline for DeSean, who needs that fourth year of service in order to become a free agent in 2012.
The deadline is less important to Titans running back Chris Johnson, since even though he’s only one accrued year away from qualifying for free agency his contract doesn’t expire for two more seasons.