[QxmFwtlam]

On Cowboys/Redskins cap issue, NFL and NFLPA revised CBA without a vote

Posted by Mike Florio on March 14, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT
Getty Images The NFL’s decision to remove $46 million in cap space from two teams that love to spend and to redistribute it to 28 other teams, several of whom hate to spend, continues to receive plenty of attention, despite the launch of free agency.
Of course, the fact that the news hit the day before the start of free agency, when the Cowboys and Redskins typically spend lots of cap dollars, has given the story far more traction than it would have had at any other time of the year.
Surely, the league would have preferred to slip this one through the media/fan five hole on Christmas Eve or the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Indeed, of all 366 days on the 2012 calendar, the worst day to have this kind of news break was the day that it broke — the day before the opening of the annual free-agency marketplace.
But it came out now because the league needed leverage in order to get the NFLPA to agree to it. And the NFLPA agreed because the league in exchange helped pump the salary cap from $116 million to $120.6 million for 2012, which may have helped NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith save his job, given that his contract expires this month.
Last year’s cap was $120.375 million; a drop less than eight months after the signing of a new CBA would have potentially triggered a mutiny.
So, fine, the NFL and NFLPA agreed to this. But here’s the thing. To the extent that the league and the union were agreeing to a fairly significant modification of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it happened without formal approval being obtained by the league (via 24 of 32 owners) or the union (via its Executive Committee and Board of Player Representatives, at a minimum).
If pushed, the league and the union surely would claim that so-called “side letter agreements” routinely are executed between the parties, without membership votes. Still, under that device, any proposed term that would be unpopular with either or both side’s membership during “normal” CBA negotiations could be deferred until after the ink dries on the deal, and then reduced to a “side letter” that is negotiated without a vote.
On something this important, shouldn’t there have been a discussion with ownership and an opportunity to vote? Four teams (the Redskins, Cowboys, Saints, and Raiders) likely would have voted against the move; if five more would have agreed that it was wrong to punish teams for refusing to engage in collusion, the measure would have died.
More importantly, even if the player-leadership of the NFLPA had decided that it made sense to agree to the reallocation of the cap space in order to get the cap number for 2012 higher than the number in 2011, the exercise of educating the Executive Committee and the Board of Player Representatives could have sparked the same mutiny that would have happened if the NFL had simply dropped a $116 million cap bomb on the players.
That mutiny could still be looming when the union heads to Hawaii this month.

[BaselBimbooooo]

They were warned and ignored the warnings.

warned of what? they followed all rules. the nfl has basically admitted that they and the other 30 teams colluded.

[pavilionnotebook]

I guess they can split it over 2 years. If I was th skins, I would put most of it into 2013 since they have no first rounder then.

[pavilionnotebook]

Apparently the Saints and Raiders also had minor violations. The 46 million of cap space will be spread among the remaining 28 teams.

[QxmFwtlam]

This could limit the Skins spending some.

I was going to ask this in regards to their DO WHAT IT TAKES approach to V-Jax but reading into it it seems they can do this over a matter of two years. So they may choose to deal with it next year.

[gnusnich]

[JEWELMARGY]

Per Schefter. For manipulating contracts in the uncapped league year.

https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/179279542773489664

[Tusethede]

This could limit the Skins spending some.

[nakeseireo]

I guess they can split it over 2 years. If I was th skins, I would put most of it into 2013 since they have no first rounder then.

That'll help, but it isn't like 1st round picks are a big chunk against the salary cap anymore. I think Cam Newton only counts $4.5 million against the Panthers cap each season of his contract. That's a drop in the bucket of the total cap and only 1/8 of what the Redskins need to come up with.

[nakeseireo]

Wow. That's huge.

$36 million for the Redskins and $10 million for the Cowboys.

[pavilionnotebook]

warned of what? they followed all rules. the nfl has basically admitted that they and the other 30 teams colluded.

According to the NFL Network, teams were warned that penalties would be imposed if organizations attempted to front-load contracts to circumvent salary cap space in future seasons.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/D...reduced-031212

[pavilionnotebook]

Seems dumb for the league to take away cap space just because these teams were smart enough to pay their players when it wouldn't hurt them after the cap was reinstated.

They were warned and ignored the warnings.

[Trientoriciom]

Seems dumb for the league to take away cap space just because these teams were smart enough to pay their players when it wouldn't hurt them after the cap was reinstated.