Mike Garafolo of NFL Media explained that if Nick Fairley’s heart condition wasn’t previously disclosed to the Saints, they could classify this as a “non-football injury” and recoup their signing bonus.
“If it’s an illness that wasn’t previously disclosed, the team can then say ‘this is a non-football injury — we don’t owe you anything’ and can take back all of the money,” Garafolo said. “But in this case, he had this before. Teams have known about this going all the way back to the [scouting] combine in 2011.