The NFL is “taking away millions of dollars of salary-cap space belonging to the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins for front-loading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season,” according to sources cited by Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. Sources said that the salary cap is “projected to be $120.6 million in 2012, but the Cowboys will lose $10 million, while the Redskins will be docked $36 million in cap space.” Sources said that the Cowboys and Redskins “can split the cap loss over the 2012 and '13 seasons in whatever form they prefer.” The Saints and Raiders are the “only two teams that will not receive a portion of the money.” Sources noted that the Cowboys and Redskins “took immediate cap hits during the 2010 season that normally would have been spread out over the length of the contracts, giving them an advantage that other NFL owners found unfair” (ESPN.com, 3/12). NFL.com’s Albert Breer wrote the league’s competition committee “would not give final approval of the new adjusted salary cap number for the 2012 season until this matter was taken care of.” The NFLPA “pushed to make sure the pool would not shrink, so it was decided that the savings from the Redskins' and Cowboys' infractions would go back in the pool, and be split among the 28 abiding teams” (NFL.com, 3/12).
NO COMPLAINTS HERE: On why the NFLPA is not challenging the decision, a source said, “The decision today … is the result of a settlement between the NFL and the NFLPA. One reason the union has no problem with it is that the money lost to the Cowboys and Redskins is not taken out of the overall 2012 spending pool -- each of 28 other teams gets $1.6 million extra in cap room, so there's no net loss league-wide.” The source added, “Another reason the union won't push on it is because they agreed, as part of the settlement of last year's Brady vs. NFL federal lawsuit, to drop all pending legal action against the league. That included their claims that the league engaged in collusion in 2010” (ESPN.com, 3/12). A source said that “without the NFLPA’s agreement regarding the removal of cap room from the Cowboys and Redskins, the 2012 salary cap would have been in the range of $116 million per team.” PRO FOOTBALL TALK’s Mike Florio noted with the players agreeing to remove $46M from the two teams, the league “agreed to a massaging of the salary and benefit numbers in order to get the 2012 salary cap up” to $120.6M. Thus, the union “had no real option.” Without consenting to the reduction of the Redskins and Cowboys cap numbers, the unadjusted cap limit “would have dropped, for the first time ever.” And with NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith “up for re-election this month, he quite possibly would not have been re-elected” (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 3/12).
THEY WERE WARNED: A source said, “All the clubs were warned not to do anything to create a competitive advantage when the salary cap came back, and that’s what (the Redskins) did. They were very obvious about it. A lot of people were very angry about it. The ramifications could have been far worse for them. They could have lost draft picks. Some people recommended that to the commissioner” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/13). ESPN DALLAS’ Jean-Jacques Taylor wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell showed Jerry Jones “who wields the power in the NFL -- and it ain't the Cowboys' owner.” Since Goodell could “never fine Jerry enough money to get his attention, Goodell grabbed about 5 percent of his salary cap space each of the next two seasons” (ESPNDALLAS.com, 3/12). In Ft. Worth, Clarence Hill Jr. writes when the league “repeatedly says don't overspend and try [to] take advantage of the system in an uncapped year and thus potentially impact the competitive balance in future years, it means it.” No matter that the league “actually was engaging in collusion by telling owners to do so.” There is “honor among thieves, and this was the league's form of mafia justice against” the Cowboys and Redskins (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 3/13). ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said, “To do it to Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder -- these are two large, loud, powerful voices who are not going to be happy about this. It’s a combination of a detriment to their teams and a huge embarrassment.” However, ESPN’s Mike Golic said, “The head honcho supposedly looked at all these deals and approved them all and now you are going back and saying, ‘No, no, no. You are in violation and you’re getting nailed for it.’ I am missing something somewhere” (“Mike & Mike in the Morning,” ESPN Radio, 3/13).
