It's actually 50k of time off (not made clear other than in the contract at the bottom), which is not exactly the same thing.

What does "50k of time off mean?" They were going to give him vacation time accrued or something else?

irrc 50k at the rate of his salary until he got a job, may be mis-remebering.

Oh so they were going to pay him 50k to sit on his butt for X amount of time. I don't know if I would really consider that leaving money on the table, personally.