Reworking Brady's contract to tweak the league

Traditionally, when a player is suspended, the player is paid by the team and then the same sum is donated to a charity in the player's name to make the tax implications of the suspension without pay clean. That is in the CBA, and that also means the team that has a suspended player loses cap space.

Tom Brady currently has a 9 million dollar salary for 2015. Each game that he is potentially suspended for would cost the Patriots $529,000 in marginal dead cap space. There is a way for the Patriots to gain cap space if Tom Brady wants to play ball that won't cost him a net penny.

If Brady and the Patriots want to stick a finger into the eyes of Goodell, they could do the following that should meet CBA requirements. The first step would be to drop Brady's salary to the vet min for someone of his service time. That would be $970,000. The remaining $8.03 million dollars would be set up as a series of incentives. If Tom Brady is on either the 53 man roster OR the IR list at any point in Week 1, he receives an incentive bonus of $473,000. If Tom Brady is on either the 53 man roster or the IR list at any point in Week 2, he receives an incentive bonus of $473,000 etc.

Do that for all 17 weeks. If Brady is available to play, he gets paid his normally weekly salary and the Patriots take a salary cap hit of . If he is suspended by the League, the Patriots only lose the base salary cost of $58,000 in cap space instead of the $529,000 that they are currently budgeting towards Brady. If he is suspended for one game, the Patriots roll $473,000 forward to 2016, two games would lead to a roll-over of $956,000 etc.

Since Brady met the incentives in 2014 (either on the 53 or IR for all 17 weeks of the season), these incentives would be deemed likely to be earned. That means the Patriots would see a cap charge of $9 million dollars plus any and all previous pro-rated bonuses. His net cap charge does not change at the moment of the signing of the revised contract. From my understanding of the CBA, this renegoatiation would be within the letter of the agreement even if it explicitly designed to be finger in the eyes of Goodell.

What say ye?

I'm not versed enough in the workings of the salary cap to comment on the logistics of what you're suggesting, but I'm willing to bet the CBA has provisions in place to stop these kinds of shenanigans, especially if they're attempted in the immediate aftermath of a suspension. Much like the courts wouldn't allow Aaron Hernandez and his fiancee to get married (thus protecting her from having to testify) after he was already arrested.

I still can't believe we're even talking about a f*cking suspension for this

I'm sick of this media fueled garbage

TBR said:

I still can't believe we're even talking about a f*cking suspension for this

I'm sick of this media fueled garbage

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Yep. Stand back and look at this for a second. This is all over the PSI in footballs and a report that stemmed from said PSI which could not come to a conclusion. But, just look at it: PSI... in footballs. Air. We're talking about the amount of air in a ball.

Agree on the lunacy of it, but to play along Miguel says a suspension would create a credit to our salary cap :

CapSpace=$10,697,117 @patscap · May 7
Q: How would a one-game Brady suspension affect cap?

A: Pats would get a credit of $470,588 when suspension goes into effect Week 1

KontradictioN said:

Yep. Stand back and look at this for a second. This is all over the PSI in footballs and a report that stemmed from said PSI which could not come to a conclusion. But, just look at it: PSI... in footballs. Air. We're talking about the amount of air in a ball.

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What i have a hard time grasping is why the NFL would actively try and destroy the reputation of one of the greatest players in the history of the game over the possibility that he knew someone might have altered the amount air in a football. Its absolutely mind boggling. You know by these actions that the league has become totally dysfunctional, and is in a downward trajectory.

couldn't they just convert the entire salary to a roster bonus?

Tom should threaten to retire.. he is one of the,most marketable stars.. and most certainly the only qb worth a damn in the,AFC east.. It worked for Joe Namath years ago when he,opened a club the league resented.. Does the NFL really want a healthy Brady out a whole year.. much less forever.. and it wouldn't be a fu.. it. would be a calculated maneuver..

@fester and @IllegalContact , I like your ideas so much that I tweeted out a link to this thread. Wish that I thought of it

reflexblue said:

What i have a hard time grasping is why the NFL would actively try and destroy the reputation of one of the greatest players in the history of the game over the possibility that he knew someone might have altered the amount air in a football. Its absolutely mind boggling. You know by these actions that the league has become totally dysfunctional, and is in a downward trajectory.

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I could not agree more nor have said it any better. This is insane.

Well if they are reacting to fans it is insane...
Because every fan base has an agenda..

Pats fans were screaming for the Jets first pick which was unreasonable... but also wound up with the equally unreasonable "nothing"...

Point is, no matter the outcome, groups of people are going to be outraged...

I blame,it more,on the mass media and internet for the collapsing of the NFL... back in the Rozelle days he could handle issues without interference.. rule on it.. then lock his door.... Goodell doesn't get that luxury... neither does any future commissioner..

SunshineSammy said:

Well if they are reacting to fans it is insane...
Because every fan base has an agenda..

Pats fans were screaming for the Jets first pick which was unreasonable... but also wound up with the equally unreasonable "nothing"...

Point is, no matter the outcome, groups of people are going to be outraged...

I blame,it more,on the mass media and internet for the collapsing of the NFL... back in the Rozelle days he could handle issues without interference.. rule on it.. then lock his door.... Goodell doesn't get that luxury... neither does any future commissioner..

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The goodell administration has been a dysfunctional disaster. You very rarely heard from or about Rozelle or Tagliabo, goodell is the opposite since hes been commish hes been putting himself in the spotlight. He has changed rules, and aired dirty laundry such as deflate gate in public. Rozelle and Tags would have settled camera gate and deflate gate behind closed doors. Lets say the jest turned the pats in for taping in the wrong location like they did in 07, we probably wouldn't have heard about it and if we did it wouldn't have been much. It would have been settled (if it had even gotten that far) in tags office, not in public bring plastered all over the internet, the press and tv. Goodell wanted it that way. Thats why i have ZERO sympathy for him.

reflexblue said:

The goodell administration has been a dysfunctional disaster. You very rarely heard from or about Rozelle or Tagliabo, goodell is the opposite since hes been commish hes been putting himself in the spotlight. He has changed rules, and aired dirty laundry such as deflate gate in public. Rozelle and Tags would have settled camera gate and deflate gate behind closed doors. Lets say the jest turned the pats in for taping in the wrong location like they did in 07, we probably wouldn't have heard about it and if we did it wouldn't have been much. It would have been settled (if it had even gotten that far) in tags office, not in public bring plastered all over the internet, the press and tv. Goodell wanted it that way. Thats why i have ZERO sympathy for him.

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I see your point but again, tags and Roselle didn't have to work under these conditions..

In today's world Goodell CLEARLY works for the owners and he did have. the spygate tapes destroyed TO protect the owners.. but only made us look more suspicious pious over nothing

Brady is a player so it is different..

This is one of the reasons Kraft isn't publicly screaming.. for better or worse Goodell made the franchise's in the league double to ten times more in value and Kraft knows this..

This is why he didn't ***** about the jets tampering punishment..

Because the owner works for Woody Johnson as well as Kraft... and he,is certainly familiar with the heat..

SunshineSammy said:

I see your point but again, tags and Roselle didn't have to work under these conditions..

In today's world Goodell CLEARLY works for the owners and he did have. the spygate tapes destroyed TO protect the owners.. but only made us look more suspicious pious over nothing

Brady is a player so it is different..

This is one of the reasons Kraft isn't publicly screaming.. for better or worse Goodell made the franchise's in the league double to ten times more in value and Kraft knows this..

This is why he didn't ***** about the jets tampering punishment..

Because the owner works for Woody Johnson as well as Kraft... and he,is certainly familiar with the heat..

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For the owners from a money standpoint goodell has been very good for the league. But as a steward of the game hand how its was played (and i purposely put was in there) hes been a disaster. Hes been moving towards a glorified version of arena football, and hes pretty inept about the day to day handling of matters. I also disagree about the conditions hes working under, he doesn't have to play things out in public. Goodells MO is to come out and make a public statement in usually a grand manner restating his commitment to the integrity of the game, then the leaks start, then the questions from the media start. At this point he goes into hiding. After he announced an investigation into tampering with the footballs in the afccg he disappeared, even with all the leaks from the FO. He set something in motion and then couldn't deal with the consequence. He could have made a statement in all the cases hes handled that they would be worked out between the parties involved and when the work is complete he'll let everyone know. Things happened in the rozell and tagliabo era's and thats the way they were handled. This business of assessing public sentiment before handing out a sentence is ridiculous. But its what he does, careens from one crisis of his own making to another.

reflexblue said:

For the owners from a money standpoint goodell has been very good for the league. But as a steward of the game hand how its was played (and i purposely put was in there) hes been a disaster. Hes been moving towards a glorified version of arena football, and hes pretty inept about the day to day handling of matters. I also disagree about the conditions hes working under, he doesn't have to play things out in public. Goodells MO is to come out and make a public statement in usually a grand manner restating his commitment to the integrity of the game, then the leaks start, then the questions from the media start. At this point he goes into hiding. After he announced an investigation into tampering with the footballs in the afccg he disappeared, even with all the leaks from the FO. He set something in motion and then couldn't deal with the consequence. He could have made a statement in all the cases hes handled that they would be worked out between the parties involved and when the work is complete he'll let everyone know. Things happened in the rozell and tagliabo era's and thats the way they were handled. This business of assessing public sentiment before handing out a sentence is ridiculous. But its what he does, careens from one crisis of his own making to another.

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I know he is indecisive.... I don't agree with the feeling people have here of a proJets antiPats bias... I think it is proOwner...

I think under him the draft has become a circus.. and his dragging it out over three days has made it less effective.. and if we expand the league then the quality really suffers.. EVERYTHING is about sucking every nickel out of fans and finding that one extra second to squeeze in an ad... I hate football compared to twenty years ago.

Why Frigging announce that Brady is suspended and will announce the length Monday.. ?? He makes everything a God damned cliffhanger... WHY??

One of these days, the world will tell the NFL to "f" itself..

reflexblue said:

What i have a hard time grasping is why the NFL would actively try and destroy the reputation of one of the greatest players in the history of the game over the possibility that he knew someone might have altered the amount air in a football. Its absolutely mind boggling. You know by these actions that the league has become totally dysfunctional, and is in a downward trajectory.

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This. Times a million.