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But as the latest in a line of Green Bay Packers players who have signed contract extensions, the two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver said Monday he recognizes, like the others, because of the way his deal is structured, he's risking not see a good portion of that new money if he suffers an injury.
As part of a deal, which is worth $11 million over the next four years, Driver's base salaries over the next three years didn't change. He's still set to earn $2.7 million in 2007, $2.9 million in '08 and $3.9 million in '09.
Most of the $3.8 million in new money he can earn over the next three seasons comes in the form of roster bonuses worth $1.3 million this year, $2 million in '08 and $2 million in '09.
However, according to a source with knowledge of the contract, those bonuses are weekly bonuses contingent on Driver being on the active 45-man game-day roster. If he's on the regular 53-man roster but is deactivated on game-day for any reason he won't get that week's pro-rated portion of the bonus.
For Driver, the roster bonus is worth $81,250 every game, or 1/16th of $1.3 million.
''In my mind, I don't look at it like that because I don't play the game for money. I feel like, if I play the game the way I want to play the game, I'm not going to get hurt,'' said Driver, who has missed only one of a possible 80 regular-season games over his five seasons as a starter.
''It makes you earn it. And I don't have a problem with that. Some people will, some people won't. I don't. I agreed to it, and that's the way I've got to play it.''
The weekly roster bonus payment is unusual. Most teams set a date - say, 10 days into the new league year - for a roster bonus to be due, and if the player is on the team's roster on that date, he receives the payment in full.
The Packers used to do roster bonuses that way until re-signing halfback Ahman Green and adding free-agent cornerback Charles Woodson before last season. Because both players were coming off injury-plagued 2005 seasons, the Packers structured a portion of their roster bonuses to be paid weekly, based on whether the player was healthy enough to dress.
Green was inactive for two games because of a hamstring injury, while Woodson played in all 16 games despite a shoulder injury that forced him to wear a harness each week.
But Woodson, who earned $9.9 million last season, said Monday he never let finances dictate whether he played or not.
''It used to be that, if you made the roster, you had a bonus and that was paid to you. Now, it's really like a performance bonus - if you play that week, then you get it. But if not, then you don't,'' said Woodson, whose contract calls for him to receive game-by-game roster bonuses of $56,000 this season based on being active each week.
''If I feel like I can play, then I'm going to play. It ain't worth going out there just to make the money for that week and possibly get hurt where you miss the rest of the year. You just have to make smart decisions when it comes to going out there.''
Since Woodson's deal, the Packers have structured the roster bonuses of all their extension-signees - center Scott Wells, cornerback Al Harris, defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins and linebacker Nick Barnett - similarly.
Packers vice president Andrew Brandt referred all questions about the way the team structures its contracts to general manager Ted Thompson, who was unavailable for comment.
In Harris' case, he received a $250,000 roster bonus in March, and he'll get another $250,000 roster bonus assuming he makes the 53-man roster in early September. Then, there's a $1.1 million roster bonus that will pay him $68,750 for every game he's active. His $1.2 million roster bonuses in '08 and '09 are structured the same way.
''It did (concern me), but I figured that if I went by what's happened so far in my career, then I've got a pretty good chance of earning it,'' said Harris, who has never missed a regular-season game in his nine-year, 144-game career. ''You have to go with what you can get.''
''(The problem is), guys may start to look at it like, 'OK, I'm not 100 percent, maybe I'm 55 percent, but I've got to get my bonus.' From a business standpoint, you have to get your money. (So) it can create kind of a conflict of interest there. But if that's the way it's structured, you've got to do what you've got to do.''
All three players pointed out it's not going to change. Unlike Major League Baseball and the NBA, where contracts are guaranteed the moment players sign them, NFL players know that will never happen.
''Yeah, it bothers me, but as football players, we're looked at as gladiators. That's all they look at us as,'' Woodson said. ''I think more people would agree with me, should be guaranteed the way baseball and basketball and hockey and all these other sports are. But it's not that way. That's why (NFL) players hold out so much for the guaranteed dollar, for those signing bonuses. That's all you have a right to.''
