I do get how contracts work….goods and or services in return for compensation.
They aren’t paying him and he isn’t providing those services. They retain his rights within a certain framework (the NFL).
This prevents Payton from coaching elsewhere without NOs blessing, but they cannot take an unreasonable stance like….’we want ten first round picks, etc,” effectively preventing Payton from earning a living in the league again.
Now, the team could offer him his job back and Payton would have no choice but to take it….other than stay out of the league….but would a team really do that? At that point he already decided to move on and go elsewhere. That’s who you want running the organization? So the team has moved on also.
That’s one of the main differences between one single player and this case. Add in that players have a finite time frame to earn, coaches can go much longer….and lastly, the rules dictate that a player must have a certain amount of service time that they don’t accumulate in retirement before they have any leverage at all really
Comparing this to a particular player is apples and oranges.