[LitlBuck]

He will have enough money to pay for a good attorney

Cleveland.com

Cleveland Browns not likely to recoup any of Donte Stallworth's roster bonus
by Tony Grossi / Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday March 23, 2009, 1:55 PM

DANA POINT, Calif. -- If Donte Stallworth can't perform for the Browns in 2009, he still might be able to keep the $4.75 million roster bonus he earned the day before his car struck and killed a pedestrian in Miami Beach.

Even if the Browns had specific forfeiture language in Stallworth's contract, the players union would contend that the collective bargaining agreement supercedes it, based on similar cases.

"They will have to fight to get it back," said one team executive at the NFL owners meetings.

"Good luck," said another.

Stallworth has not been charged in the March 14 accident.

Recouping bonus money from players was made tougher for teams when the CBA was extended in 2006. Teams were limited to recouping only the pro-rated portions of a signing bonus if a player breached his contract by being suspended or committing a crime.

"We lost all that stuff (in the extension)," one of the sources said.

Correcting that huge oversight is just one reason the owners opted out of the CBA, setting up a future labor fight.

Based on precedent, the Browns would be entitled to a pro-rated portion of Stallworth's original signing bonus if legal issues prevented him from playing in 2009, or beyond. That would amount to about $905,000 a year

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