When Texas Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder’s career was cut short in 2016 due to a neck injury, the team (and the team’s insurance policy) will pay the rest of the $106 million owed on the contract. And even scrubs who are cut before the end of their contract will get paid for the rest. That’s not the case in the NFL. Many players who get injured or cut in the league simply will not get paid for it.

It is very hard for even star players to get fully guaranteed contracts. For example, the Baltimore Sun reports that Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton signed a $118.5 million contract and Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco signed a $120.6 million contract. The paper said that “Newton got a $22.5 million signing bonus,” with $60 million guaranteed with a $10 million option bonus,” while “Flacco’s deal included a $29 million signing bonus and $51 million guaranteed.” So whenever you see big numbers thrown around, take them with a grain—make that a shaker—of salt.

There are a variety of reasons for this situation: a weak union, more players in the NFL, players are more replaceable than in other sports, the salary cap that baseball does not have, but the bottom line is the player can potentially get on the unemployment line with no more money coming.

Thr MLB was so concerned about the relatively harmless tradition of rookies sometimes having to dress in female costumes on one day each year that they banned the practice. Meanwhile, the NFL mostly looks the other way when it comes to the crazy hazing that happens in their league. Richie Incognito’s infamous harassment of Jonathan Martin on the Miami Dolphins is an extreme example, but there are plenty of other bad things that happen to players.

Rookies may have to get horrible haircuts, including having their hair shaved into the shape of a penis, as the Jacksonville Jaguars did in 2010. Then there are costlier indignities that rookies might suffer, including getting stuck with five-figure restaurant and bar tabs, like what happened to Houston Texans rookie K. J. Dillion in 2016. He went to dinner with members of the team and only ordered a $13 Caesar salad. He had to pay the $16,255.20 tab, which didn’t include the tip. That’s what also happened to Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, who refused to carry Roy Williams’ shoulder pads in 2010 when he was a rookie. Williams extracted revenge by making him pay $54,896 for the offensive line’s dinner bill.

What sometimes happens in hazing is that those who were tortured go after the next generation. Happily, Bryant told TMZ in 2016 that they don’t do such hazing in Dallas anymore. (Of course, he doesn’t do anything in Dallas anymore.) 

It seems like only some NFL players can show a personality, and even then, it’s limited. And they’d better not state their political views, or they will pay a price. As of this writing, Quarterback Colin Kaepernick is having a hard time finding a new job because of his (non)stance on the National Anthem during the 2016 season.

A player, especially a quarterback, who shows anything non-vanilla from the beginning may never get a chance to prove himself. Even proven quarterbacks, like Cam Newton, face consequences for things as trivial as not wearing a tie on a team flight or criticism for his dabbing.

Newsday interviewed 763 ex-NFL players for a 2015 report called “Life After Football.” The players talked of the physical toll the game took on them, as well as all the issues ex-athletes face, including financial and marital problems.

Eighty-nine percent of them said they’d still do it all over again, despite all the many negative things about the game. That says something for the power and the hold football has on its players.