Dawgs By Nature
His methods regarding the NFL salary cap are being monitored
The word “loophole” is derived from thin slits that were built throughout the stone walls of castles. The openings provided enough space for an archer to shoot arrows out of without being hit by the castle’s attackers. The top of the opening was a long narrow slit for vision while the bottom had a round hole for the arrows, called a loop which means “to encircle.”
The context of the word today means “to take advantage of something already there.”
One famous loophole that was implemented was the way to circumvent “Raine’s Law” during the 1920s. The New York law stated that on Sundays, restaurants and saloons could not sell alcohol unless food was purchased at the same time. To exploit this, the establishment sold the customer a sandwich to go along with his beverage of choice, then took it away after one bite, and then sold the same sandwich to the next customer. Using this system, a few sandwiches would often last an entire day, without any rules or laws being broken.
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Cleveland Browns GM Andrew Berry has shown he is a master of manipulating the NFL’s salary cap. Often, he will place future contract money and convert it into a signing bonus, to which the player receives his funds anyway, and it does not affect the salary cap as much and his use of void years has been used as an example around the NFL.
Having Jimmy Haslam’s money to throw around is very helpful in this process.
Take Myles Garrett’s new contract extension. It includes reasonable salaries for 2025 and 2026, then pays the star defensive end a $29.2 million option bonus that kicks in 2026 and over $39 million in 2027.
The league is intrigued by Berry’s math and may be interested in doing something about it.
During the owner’s meetings held recently in Minneapolis, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke about the league’s future and mentioned possible reforms to the financialization of the salary cap. The NFL’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was ratified in 2020 and expires after the 2030 season.
Goodell stated:
“The two areas that we spent time on were really the cap system itself, the integrity of that system, how it’s working, and where do we need to address that in the context of collective bargaining, when that does happen. That was a very lengthy discussion.”
A lot has changed since the 2020 season. For one, the schedule has added a 17th game, and the league is moving towards adding an 18th contest. This year, there will be 16 international regular-season games as the current CBA only allows for 10 per year. Costs keep rising, including team operations. New stadiums and new practice facilities are being discussed.
Teams are worth billions.
If you think about what Goodell has hinted at, the owners appear to be unhappy with the current split of revenue between players...
