It’s been shocking since day 1 that this was announced that NFL contracts don’t protect against this. Some sports do. There have even been NFL players whose contracts stated they couldn’t play basketball for fun in the offseason.
You’ll start seeing it in contracts going forward, I can almost guarantee it.
You can’t keep these guys from being competitive, and plenty of them do engage in risky athletic endeavors in the offseason so you’ll never be able to prohibit all of it.
It is a little surprising with the money these guys make and the importance they carry for their billion-dollar franchises, that the NFL doesn’t have some sort of actuary analyzing the risks of certain activities and putting clauses in the contracts.
This “league”, especially with its direct ties to dirty money, should be the exclusive territory of retired has-beens or former college star never-weres who want to trade on the fading values of their names before it’s too late. Not active star players. Let dudes like Tavon Austin and Johnny Manziel be the stars of this shit. It’s embarrassing for someone with a career, but could be fun for the busts and washed up guys.