Falcons defensive tackle Corey Peters was placed on the non-football injury list after hurting his foot during the offseason, and that cost him nearly $100,000.
Although neither Peters nor the Falcons have said how Peters hurt his foot, Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com writes that the Falcons weren’t happy with whatever Peters did, and as a result they chose not to pay him his full salary during his seven weeks on the non-football injury list.
The Falcons continued to pay Peters during those seven weeks, but they paid him at a rate as if he were making $303,000 in base salary. He actually makes $540,000 in base salary. So he was paid $17,824 a week for those seven weeks, whereas his normal base salary would earn him $31,765 a week. That means he lost $13,941 a week for seven weeks, or a total of $97,587.
NFL teams don’t have to pay players while they’re missing time for non-football injuries, although many teams choose to keep paying players, especially if they suffered their injuries working out on their own or otherwise trying to stay in shape during the offseason. There’s still no word on how Peters got hurt, but now that he’s back on the 53-man roster he’s back to making his normal salary.