I could be wrong ... gawd knows that never happens... :roll: ... I believe what Slick is asking goes something like this and, it's not a dumb question ... say for example:
Player signs big contract. He has reworked his contract to be more "cap friendly", at the time, incentive money is converted to a signing bonus and he gets a huge payday ... but, the remainder of the contract is spread out over, say 7 years. Player plays out 4 and retires ... {ok...signing bonus is accelerated when her retires and counts against that team's cap total the next year -- but that is a cap issue} ... what about the remaining 3 years in cold hard cash?
Now, I mess around in contract law every working day of my life, but ... the NFL is NOT the real world. My first inclination would be to say NO, compensation stops when Player retires (unless contract specifically states otherwise).