Commissioner Goodell has been busy handing down fines, suspensions & sanctions this offseason. While most of the focus has been on the Saints, many forget about the harsh penalties issues to the Cowboys & Redskins for alleged salary cap manipulation.
Both teams naturally disagreed with the combined reduction of $46M from the team’s salary cap over the next two seasons. A hearing to address their concerns has been set for May according to Pro Football Talk.
The crux of the issue here is that the NFL essentially retroactively accused the teams of violating the “spirit” of the salary cap in the uncapped year of 2010. What the NFL doesn’t mention is that they approved every contract at the time.
Basically, the teams front loaded certain contracts to absorb as much as they could in the uncapped year & therefore leaving themselves more space in later years of the contracts. Sounds like smart business to me.
Teams routinely & historically manipulate contracts to manage & maximize their cap space. If the NFL had such an issue with it they should’ve denied the contracts two years ago.
