The endorsement salary cap rule

I forgot who brought up the possibility of Russell Wilson endorsing Microsoft and getting paid handsomely for it as a way to circumvent the cap. Found this in the CBA.

(b) A player’s Salary shall also include any and all consideration received by the player or his Player Affiliate from a Club or Club Affiliate, even if such consideration is ostensibly paid to the player for services other than football playing services, if the NFL can demonstrate before the Impartial Arbitrator that the consideration paid to the player or Player Affiliate for such nonfootball services does not represent a reasonable approximation of the fair market value of such services as performed by such player. The Impartial Arbitrator’s determination may take into account, among other things: (1) any actual dollar amounts the player or Player Affiliate received for similar nonfootball playing services from an independent third party; and (2) the percentage of total com-pensation for nonfootball services received from third parties versus the Team or Team Affiliate.

Wow. That's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. A Microsoft sponsorship of a SuperBowl winning QB could be reasonably established at millions per year, I would think.

isn't it convenient that the seahawks owner is one of the co-founders of Microsoft

THIS is why Goodell is never going anywhere. While the owners are busy finding new and unique ways to skirt any/all league rules, they confidently trust their catspaw to run amok chasing totally fabricated, fairy story "violations" of league rules such as this ignorant,idiotic,and insipid "deflategate" nonsense.

Personally, I have consistantly thought for a very long time that many players and certainly fans, agents, and above all the mediot-analysts have given TOO LITTLE thought to the endorsement value that players have.

Take the WW case, he left over essentially about a half-mil difference in one year and maybe even earned less in the long term. But you can't tell me that he as a brand new add to a Denver team full of stars and old stars (Elway) that he could get squat for local endorsement deals. But he was very marketable in not only Boston but the whole heavily populated NE region.

Worked out for the best

hwc said:

Wow. That's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. A Microsoft sponsorship of a SuperBowl winning QB could be reasonably established at millions per year, I would think.

Click to expand...

But it's not a loophole as I think you imply.
As I read Miguel's excerpt the Arbitrator could and likely would add millions that Wilson received from Paul Allen's Microsoft back into Seattle's cap.

Remember almost every time Goody ruled on something that was arbitrated, he was reversed!

I was the guy who brought it up a few weeks ago. Based on the info you gave us (thanks), I'm not comforted. I think an arbiter would have a tough time creating the link between Allen and Microsoft. Outside of the fact he WAS a founder, he has no links to the company now. I'm not even sure if he still holds a significant amount of stock.

On the surface (no pun intended), as a young, well spoken, superbowl winning QB, Wilson would be a perfect choice to be a spokesperson for a product, especially one that the NFL is already promoting.

BTW- this only becomes an issue if Wilson's first post rookie deal contract is noticeably lower in value than it should be. But it still is an issue. Wilson's case is important since its so obvious, but I wouldn't be surprised if the concept spreads. Clearly I think the NFL has to tighten up this provision for the future.

So you give a star from another sport an equal contract to endorse your product and say that's what we've established as the value we put behind sports stars representing our brand. Russell take the contract at under market value and we'll make it up to you by pairing you in ad an for Microsoft with LeBron for 25M.

PatsWickedPissah said:

But it's not a loophole as I think you imply.
As I read Miguel's excerpt the Arbitrator could and likely would add millions that Wilson received from Paul Allen's Microsoft back into Seattle's cap.

Click to expand...

Only if the Microsoft deal were determined to be unreasonable. Allen and Microsoft could likely do a multi-million deal with Russell Wilson and have everything would be fine if the deal were similar to endorsement deals with other companies and other SuperBowl winning QBs (i.e. Brady, Manning, Rogers, etc.).

This could be a very large endorsement deal from an Allen affiliated company to an Allen employed player, cash money that is not counted towards the Allen-owned team's cap.

If the rule had teeth, it would ban side deals from affiliated companies.

I brought it up, Thank you for information Miguel.

As if teams in salary capped leagues haven't been working with sponsors for decades to maximize player sponsorship deals for a little cap relief...