The playoff penalty

As we watch the familiar specter of great, well-loved players who have contributed so much to the team forced or choosing to leave because of the salary cap, I am surprised that more hasn't been made about one of the greatest unfairnesses of the salary cap: Pats players have to play in a lot more games - uncompensated - than non-Pats players.

Brady, for example, has played in almost two full regular seasons worth of postseason games (29) over his career. Wilfork has played in over a season's worth (20). These games were completely uncompensated beyond a minimal league bonus.

Yet the Pats players still have to take the full risk of season-ending injury - indeed of career-ending injury. Other quarterbacks flame out early in the playoffs every year - but the way the salary cap works, they don't get penalized for it at all. It just doesn't seem right somehow. Our guys work more, play more unselfishly, put their bodies out there at great risk, and don't get anything out of it unless they switch teams.

Not because fans, Belichick and Kraft don't recognize and love their contributions. But because of the perverse salary cap incentives to play bad.

I think it would be much more fair for a team to allow any player to take a bonus based on the round of playoffs the team reached, so long as that bonus is not more, as a proportion of base salary, than the number of rounds reached or byed divided by 16. This bonus shouldn't count against the salary cap. Why should Manning be paid the same for 17 games that Brady gets for 20, year after year?

The goal of winning in the offseason is not always about money, it seems to be more about future financial leverage and post Superbowl/career honors.. for many, this is the goal that they have been trying to achieve since they first put on pads.. to show you craft in front of 100+ million people all over the world, is pretty good adulation.

Do you think an NFL Player is happier if he was sitting at home watching the Superbowl or playing in the Superbowl risking injury??

For some of these guys on the roster, the $160K for doing all of this is a nice parting gift..

Meh, you can say what you want about the league playoff pool, but it is 100% incorrect to say they are uncompensated for those games.

It may be well-below Brady's regular paycheques, but $21K for losing in wildcard weekend isn't nothing to a bottom-of-the-roster guy, nor is the $92K for winning the Super Bowl.

You can feed your family with that.

You'd also need to be careful not to go too far the other way. Otherwise players would flock even more to the better franchises, even taking a bit less money with the expectation they'd make it up in the playoffs.

the issue is when you have a team like the patriots that make it every year, giving them some sort of extended cap to make up for the additional games means they will continue to pull ahead of the league that puts emphasis on parity.

this whole notion fails to fly in the face of the league goal of parity

after all, they want all teams to be 8-8

I don't think there's a "playoff penalty" for players at all.

1. In most sports, making the playoffs isn't pro-rated as part of players' salaries. It's assumed to be a team and player goal for everyone. The "playoff share" is non-trivial compared to what the rest of the world makes and for the lower-paid players. The Red Sox players received $307K for their 2013 World Series run. Nothing to sneeze about, but certainly not pro-rated for the higher paid players. In the NBA there is a "playoff kitty", but the amount pales compared to the salaries that players make.

http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/playoff-perks-for-pro-athletes.aspx

2. Players understand the goal of the game that rewards them so richly. They tend to reap indirect benefits from being a part of their teams' success. Look at how players from successful teams tend to cash in in FA. Do you think Shane Vereen would get paid as well if the Pats didn't win the SB? Every year there are a not insignificant number of FAs who get "overpaid" based on their success in a particular system, which doesn't necessarily translate to a new team.

3. Teams are free to structure incentives in contracts based on making the playoffs. Julian Edelman got a $500K incentive for 80 receptions and a SB appearance. Vince Wilfork got an extra $500K for the team making the divisional round in addition to paying 70% of the defensive snaps. It's up to teams and players as to whether they want to include playoff success in the overall compensation package.

There is a penalty for success for teams: other teams want to hire away their FAs and their coaching staff, they pick lower in the draft, and they have less offseason time to rest and prepare. But as others have already noted, the league prefers to promote parity. The current system works just fine.

mayoclinic said:

I don't think there's a "playoff penalty" for players at all.

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Agree with all Mayo said, but I would think a bit higher NFL bonuses for guys on teams who make the playoffs wouldnt hurt the system either.

Check me if I'm wrong, but While, obviously any incentivized individual bonuses from a players contract DO COUNT against the team's cap....I believe the NFL salary-money the guys get paid for playoff games DOES NOT COUNT against the team's salary cap. So there already is some kind of incentive for players to go towards a good-team (whether that & the 'fame-incentive' offsets the increased injury risk.... individual players have to make that choice.)


While it might be nice in the patriots case to have some of those individual-contract options not count toward the team cap (OP's position); I think it would make a complex system that much more complex so .... thank you, but NO.

Yes the NFL is a business and money is on the line however these guys are playing a game.
Winning > Losing (Water is also wet.)

Any player who has this concern should have incentives in his contract for playoff games played.

I don't disagree with Mayo or the OP. but it does seem a little unfair that the owners are rolling in the cash off of the playoffs while a marquee guy is getting $21K. Yes $21K can feed your family but Kraft gets millions.
And yes, Vereen helped his value but the risk they all are taking is what happened to Jeremy Lane (broken arm and ACL tear.) Maybe the fair solution is some sort of injury insurance in the playoffs.