AMERICA AT LARGE: In terms of maintaining long-term competitive balance, it would be hard to argue that the National Football League's salary cap is a bad idea.
In theory, at least, it does prevent the Manchester Uniteds of the NFL from stockpiling talent at the expense of the mere millionaires who own the clubs at the bottom of the food chain.
No sooner had the cap been introduced back in 1994 than some of the more devious operations began devising ways to circumvent it, at least temporarily. The San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, to name two, were able to sustain their success over the early 1990s with back-loaded contracts that kept their payrolls, on paper, in compliance with the cap, only to pay a rather draconian price down the line when the deferred monies came due.
Only three weeks ago the New England Patriots were being paraded through downtown Boston, feted by a throng of 1.25 million delirious football fans. Tom Brady, the upstart youngster who began the season as the team's fourth-string quarterback and ended it as the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXXVI, has been whisked from Disney World to Hawaii and back, and his agents are sifting through a pile of offers that would ensure the 24-year-old quarterback a lifetime of financial security if he never threw another football.
Adam Vinatieri, the placekicker who booted the game-winning field goal, has been seen on more late-night talk shows than Britney Spears, mainly by picking up the appearances that Brady turned down. The companies that manufacture replica NFL uniforms can't keep the shelves stocked. You can't buy a Patriots jersey in downtown Boston today. The official, team-produced commemorative video (with soundtrack by U2) won't even hit the stands until March 5th, and the stores can't take orders fast enough.
This week the bill for all of this frivolity comes due. Having assembled the most successful team in franchise history, the Patriots' front office must now go about the delicate business of dismantling it.
Like 31 other NFL teams, New England is obliged to bring its payroll within the confines of the league-wide salary cap by tomorrow morning. This year the magic number has been pegged at $71.1 million, up from a payroll limitation of $67.4 million per team a year ago. Having relieved themselves of one hefty obligation when the new Houston Texans took safety Matt Stevens in the expansion draft two weeks ago, the world champions disposed of three others this week when they released cornerback Terrance Shaw (which saved them $2.9 million), along with receivers Charles Jackson and Curtis Jackson, which pared an additional $1.375 million from the payroll.
Seven other players, several of whom played vital roles in the team's championship run, will likely be allowed to escape to free agency.
In no other sport in the world does this annual bloodletting take place, and in comparison to some other teams, the Patriots can count themselves fortunate. The Baltimore Ravens, who won the Super Bowl a year earlier, released six starting players on Monday, and will probably either restructure the contract of quarterback Elvis Grbac or allow him to slip away.
AND those are successful teams we're talking about. The Washington Redskins, who didn't get a sniff at the play-offs this year, were carrying on their books over $10 million in deferred salaries owing to players who were no longer even in the NFL.
Hence the flurry of activity this week in what took on the trappings of a league-wide fire-sale: The Denver Broncos cut star linebacker Bill Romanowski, who almost immediately signed with Oakland. The Detroit Lions released Pro Bowl wide receiver Herman Moore and his $3.5 million salary, and then signed him back for $750,000 just hours later.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, having jettisoned the salary of offensive tackle Tony Boselli when he was taken by Houston in the expansion draft, two days ago unloaded another $10 million in salary obligation by releasing linebacker Kevin Hardy. The New York Jets, even after losing two players to Houston, felt compelled to release linebacker Marvin Jones and defensive lineman Shane Burton.
The intricacies governing the salary cap are sufficiently complex that most NFL front offices now include a financial wizard, usually a lawyer or an accountant or, preferably, both, whose sole job is to interpret it and offer guidance in signing off on new contracts.
Sometimes what appears to be a bargain doesn't turn out to be one. The Patriots, for instance, thought they were ensuring their long-term future when they signed quarterback Drew Bledsoe to a multi-year contract worth over $103 million a few years ago. Then, in the season's second game, Bledsoe was injured, along came Brady, and, apart from a cameo role replacing an injured Brady in the AFC championship game, Bledsoe hasn't been seen since.
There is no shortage of NFL teams who, rightly or wrongly, believe themselves to be just a quarterback away from contention, but trading a Bledsoe solves only part of the problem. The way this salary cap thing works, the Patriots will be on the hook for his pro-rated signing bonus even if he is playing somewhere else.
The upshot is that even if the Patriots are able to deal away Bledsoe's $5.5 million 2002 salary, another $6 million of his bonus money will count against their salary cap next year, which still doesn't solve the problem posed by young Brady, who earned less than $300,000 in leading the Patriots to the championship, but will surely get a healthy contract extension once the smoke clears.
Small wonder, then, that when each team had to make five players available for stocking the Houston roster a few weeks ago, the list included a veritable all-star team of high-priced talent. The Texans could in theory have assembled a team which might have been the most competitive first-year entry in league history - but then they themselves would have been over the salary cap, and might have found themselves releasing players before they'd ever set foot on the field.
