As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com accurately notes, the only money in his contract that Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing will lose this season for violating the NFL's steroid policy is the four gamechecks Cushing will miss while he's serving his four-game suspension.

Since Cushing is scheduled to earn a $395,000 base salary in 2010, that comes out to $92,941. However, since he was allowed to play throughout the 2009 season, Cushing picked up an extra $82,954 from the final year of the NFL's performance-based pay program in March. So his four-game suspension may only cost him $9,987 in 2010.

Cushing did not receive a "signing bonus", which are subject to forfeiture, when he signed his contract last summer. Instead, Cushing received a $1.206 million dollar roster bonus and a $310,000 base salary for the 2009 season, which was fully guaranteed.

This off-season, Cushing received a $6 million dollar option bonus, and has a $2.9 million dollar "one-timer" payment, which could have been triggered by any number of mechanisms, including being named the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year. (Even if the Associated Press re-votes and awards that title to someone else, Cushing has likely earned that one-timer through some other benchmark reached in 2009.)

Cushing's suspension won't hurt him until 2013, when he can escalate his base salary by a few hundred thousand dollars through incentives tied to playing-time percentages and Pro Bowl berths in the first four years of the deal. By being suspended, Cushing loses out on a quarter of the 2010 regular season, affecting his playing-time percentage, and he is not eligible for the Pro Bowl in the 2010 season.