Seahawks pay Eddie Lacy $55k for not being too fat

Keeping an ideal weight has been an issue for Eddie Lacy, but he passed his first test for the Seahawks on Monday.

Plenty of players have eaten their way out of a professional sports career, and running back Eddie Lacy has teetered on that possibility over the last couple years. The Green Bay Packers never seemed seriously interested in bringing him back as a free agent, and the Seattle Seahawks eventually signed Lacy to a one-year, $5.55 million deal ($3 million guaranteed).

In an effort to keep Lacy properly motivated, the Seahawks put monthly weight clauses in his contract with a $55,000 bonus attached to each time he came in at or under a certain number from May-December. May’s number was 255 pounds, and Monday was the day for Lacy’s first weigh-in.

Lacy came in at 253 pounds on Monday, which is obviously two under the prescribed mark. With reports he played at over 260 pounds with the Packers (listed at 234 pounds), and weighed in at 267 pounds as recently as one of his free agent visits, Lacy has apparently made some progress in weight loss.

But it’s not over, with $330,000 more available to Lacy in six more $55,000 increments. ESPN’s Field Yates laid out the weigh-in schedule just after Lacy signed with the Seahawks.

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Note that Lacy’s weight benchmark in June and August is 250 pounds, with a skipped month in July. Then during the season, until the playoffs anyway, his threshold drops again to 245 pounds. The skipped month is very interesting, with camp starting in late-July, so the Seahawks appear willing to give Lacy some time to work off a pre-training camp eating binge. From this point on, he has 330,000 more reasons to come in at the proper weight.