View Single Post
Old 03-03-2005, 04:52 PM   #7 (permalink)
DDDDave
Addict
 
Location: Sarasota
Here is a good, but not all encompassing, explanation of the salary cap...


The NFL salary cap is the absolute maximum each club may spend on player salaries in a capped year. For 2003, that amounted to 64.25% of league-wide "Defined Gross Revenues" (divided by 32 teams), made up of preseason, regular-season and postseason gate receipts and radio and television rights. For 2004 it rises slightly, to 64.75% of said revenues. The salary cap remains in effect at all times, although certain exceptions may make it appear as though it's not being applied at times. (See below.)

A team may not exceed this cap with the salaries of players that are under contract and on their roster. If a team does exceed the salary cap at any time, the NFL can waive players from the team, starting with those earning the lowest salaries, until the team's payroll has fallen under the cap. In addition, the NFL may fine a team up to $1 million per day for exceeding the cap.

Teams must spend at least $67.3 million under the cap rules.

Only players under contract count toward the salary cap. Free agents do not count toward the cap until they sign a contract with the team.

Often it may appear that the cap is not in effect. How, for example, can teams have up to 80 players on the roster (in training camp) yet not exceed the cap? Here's the explanation.

From the day free agency begins—this year, that's March 3, 2004—to the day before the season begins, a club's top 51 salaried players count towards the cap, plus pro-rated signing bonuses, incentives, etc., but not base salaries of other players on the roster up to 80. Thereafter, all salaries on a club's roster count towards the cap.

To get around the cap, teams typically structure their player contracts in such a way that much of the money is designated as "signing" or "roster" bonuses, or "incentive clauses." A signing bonus or roster bonus does count toward the cap but is prorated over the length of the contract, even though the entire bonus has been paid in cash 'up front' to the player. When you read about a player and team agreeing to restructure a contract, it virtually always means that the player has agreed to convert at least a good part of his coming season's base salary into a signing bonus.

Incentive clauses are often made easy to reach as an indirect means of playing a player more while keeping his "base salary" low. Too easy to reach, however, and they're likely to be considered salary by the NFL, which must approve all contracts. For instance, if Drew Bledsoe, who's big and known for being immobile, had an incentive clause paying him $1 million for each game he started, the NFL would almost certainly rule that such payments are salary rather than genuine incentives, since Bledsoe has been a starter for many years. But a clause paying Bledsoe a bonus if he rushes for 500 yards would be legitimate, since he's known for his lack of mobility.

There are many additional rules, some of them highly technical. An example is the so-called "Deion Sanders rule" that was enacted after Dallas owner Jerry Jones gave Sanders a (then-)astronomical $13 million signing bonus, combined with base salaries of the then-minimum salary of $178,000 for the first three years. The new rule states that the first three years of any player's salary must equal the prorated amount of the signing bonus. The intent is to restrict circumvention of the salary cap.

Here's another little-known technicality. Those "likely to be earned" incentives mentioned above? Well, when they're not reached, they become cap credits the following year, which can mean a hidden bonanza for an underachieving franchise. A team that plays poorly, and which writes incentives into many of its player contracts, may actually reap a reward the year after. Case in point: the 2004 Vikings, who are an astounding $33 million under the cap. In actuality, the Vikings' cap is almost $95 million, because Minnesota gets more than $14 million in cap credits this year for "likely to be earned" incentives that weren't earned by their players in 2003.

Player benefits currently are $12,156,000 per club above the salary cap number.

Finally, there is a rule promulgated by the league, designated "Cap Relief For Veterans," which allows teams to sign players with more than four years of experience to one-year contracts and have those contracts count for only $450,000 under the cap. Suppose that a 10-year veteran signs a one-year deal. He will make $760,000 (the minimum salary), but the team that signs him only has to count $450,000 against its cap. Any player receiving this benefit can receive a maximum signing bonus of $25,000.
__________________
I am just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe...

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." - Thoreau

"Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm" - Emerson
DDDDave is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360