49ers’ Chris Borland returning most of signing bonus
Retired linebacker Chris Borland will pay back approximately $463,000 the San Francisco 49ers.
Former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday to answer some questions about his retirement from the NFL at the age of 24. One of the topics discussed was what would happen to Borland’s $617,000 signing bonus.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Borland said he would be returning 75 percent of that signing bonus to the team.
Former #49ers LB Chris Borland, now retired, told CBS’ “Face The Nation” that he’s returning 3/4 of his $617,436 signing bonus to the team.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 22, 2015
Borland said that he would be paying back the $463,000 following some accusations that his retirement was simply a cash grab. Returning such a sum of money seems to indicate that is not the case, not to mention the fact that Borland was playing well enough to earn a healthy pay raise as soon as he was up for an extension.
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In one year with San Francisco, Borland recorded 107 tackles, a sack and two interceptions as an undersized linebacker. Borland looked like a future star, drawing some comparisons to Zach Thomas, but retired at a young age due to concerns over head injuries.
Borland’s absence will hurt the 49ers, who also lost Patrick Willis to retirement at age 30. However, his concerns will also spark a larger conversation around the NFL about head injuries and could make others think more about early retirement.
The NFL claims that the number of head injuries are down and concussion research has advanced significantly over the past few years. However, players are also more hesitant to report head injuries now that they are required to go through concussion protocol.
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