Football player Kyler Murray is becoming one of the highest-paid NFL professionals: He signs a contract extension with the Arizona Cardinals worth $230.5 million. One particularly interesting clause requires him to do “homework” and limits his video game time. Murray is known to be a huge fan of the gaming series “Call of Duty” and streams on Twitch.
Who is Kyler Murray?
- Kyler Murray (24) is the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. He was the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 and has made it to the Pro Bowl 2 times – he’s really good.
- In addition to his sports career, he streams on Twitch: primarily sports games like NFL Madden or NBA 2k. He only streams a few hours a year, but he is a member of the “FaZe Clan”, one of the largest gaming organizations in the world.
- Murray is known to be a huge fan of the “Call of Duty” series.
The release of a new Call of Duty is the highlight of the year for some gamers:
What’s the deal with Call of Duty? There’s a legendary story about Murray: He had an extremely exciting game against the Buffalo Bills in 2020, and his team managed to win at the last second. The team celebrated the victory exuberantly.
However, Murray did not celebrate but drove home and played Call of Duty in front of his Twitch viewers.
There are also statistics suggesting that Murray played significantly worse from 2019 to 2021 after the respective Call of Duty was released (via twitter).
But that is viewed critically: The last games of a season are often accompanied by other circumstances: Games are not as important anymore, or a long season takes its toll.
No video games during homework time
What kind of clause is this? Murray has signed a new, massive contract extension. However, it includes a very strange clause:
This clause requires Murray to spend 4 hours a week on a kind of “homework”; he must watch material provided by the team – likely video footage of the opposing defense so that he can react as a quarterback (via twitter).
The clause expressly states that he cannot play video games during “homework” time – he is also not allowed to watch TV or surf the internet.
Unfortunately, it does not count as “doing homework” – Kyler Murray reads the defense in Madden:
“After 30 years in football, I have never seen anything like this”
How is this being discussed? Such a clause is absolutely unusual because professional athletes who earn so much money a year are expected to prepare optimally for a game.
That a professional has to be told to focus on the game instead of playing Call of Duty is generally considered outrageous. Since the clause has come to light, there has been discussion in the U.S. about how it is possible to contractually impose something like this on a top athlete – especially since it is “only” 4 hours a week, many experts are outraged.
A former manager of a team says (via twitter):
In 30 years of reviewing NFL contracts, I have never seen anything like this. It’s strange that they are paying him $46 million a year and are worried about him doing 4 hours of homework.
But evidently, it was important for the team to write this explicitly into the contract. They probably know their player best.
Many professional athletes enjoy video games, often shooters:
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