We CAN make the cap room to sign Peppers - Unsubstantianted Claim

eom said:

to get to LA?

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An analogy....

solman said:

1. This contract replaces the previous contract and lasts through the end of the 2014 League Year

2. Tom Brady will receive the following amounts as salary:

2009: $2M
2010: $2.6M
2011: $3.2M
2012: $3.8M
2013: $4.4M
2014: $5.0M

3. The salary in 2009 through 2012 shall be guaranteed for skill, injury and salary cap terminations except as specified below

4. Team Option: At the beginning of the 2010 League year, the team may exercise the following option:

a. The team will pay the player an option bonus of $100M
b. The player's salary for the remainder of this contract will be reduced to the league minimum and will no longer be guaranteed.

This option will expire one month after the beginning of the 2010 league year.

5. Player Option: If the team option expires unexercised, the player shall receive the following option, which may be exercised at any time prior to the start of the 2010 season:

a. The player shall receive a bonus payment of $80M
b. The player's salary for the remainder of this contract will be reduced to the league minimum and no longer be guaranteed.
c. The final year of this contract (2014) shall be voided.

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That contract would not be approved (a fact that I have verified through an agent) because of the bonus payment in the player's option.

However, there IS a loophole in the 30 percent rule that one team has used to a very small degree this offseason. I'm working on a writeup about it that I might post on my comp picks blog.

Miguel said:

So what is the option for???

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The team gets two benefits by exercising the option:

1. It prevents the player from exercising the player option (which, although it is for less money allows him to void the last year of the contract).

2. "The player's salary for the remainder of this contract will be reduced to the league minimum and will no longer be guaranteed."

MoLewisrocks said:

Yes it is. And it's protected by the alternate player option language just the same as it would be protected if it simply guaranteed future salary in the event the team failed to exercise the option.

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There is ample precedent of monies, which are guaranteed by two mutually exclusive sections, not being treated as guaranteed under the CBA.

The only differences here are:

1. The money is not actually guaranteed (Brady could get cut after 2009).
2. The 30% rule is in play.

The answer would appear to be it's just a number to allow solman's Brady term sheet to fly, nothing more...certainly the Executive Committee would see that...and therefore allow it... since it's obvious Brady would walk away from the $80M cash and void the remainder of the deal after agreeing to a deal that lowered his already comparatively paltry 2009 compensation by $2.5M.

You know, the sad part is over and above his inability to let this go over his belief he can manipulate language to circumvent the expiring cap rules, he has no clue what the implications of Bob Kraft handing Tom Brady $80-100M in March 2010 would be. Nor does he care because the object of his exercise has always been just to prove he was right when he boldly stated a deal could be done to free up cap space. Not that doing so would make any sense...

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The CBA says what it says.

If intent or common sense were an issue, then we wouldn't have transition tag poison pills.

Section 8 was aggressively negotiated by the union and the league to such a degree that 8(c) permanently memorializes an issue on which they were unable to reach an agreement.

The language of Section 8, not common sense determines how it is applied. In this case the language does not include my proposed bonus.


The goal of this exercise, for me, is to determine whether or not the loophole I saw in the CBA is exploitable or not.

AdamJT13 said:

That contract would not be approved (a fact that I have verified through an agent) because of the bonus payment in the player's option.

However, there IS a loophole in the 30 percent rule that one team has used to a very small degree this offseason. I'm working on a writeup about it that I might post on my comp picks blog.

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Thank you for that AdamJT13.

Could you elaborate on the first part? (The bonus payment in the player's option being the basis for non approval?)

Thanks.

I changed the title so as to include Unsubstantiated Claim as I feel that Solman has yet to corroborate his claim that the Patriots "can free up an extra $9M if we restructure/extend Brady, Light and Faulk so that their cap hit in 2009 is $1M each". Please note that solman was not including the prorated signing bonus amortization when he wrote "cap hit".

solman said:

Thank you for that AdamJT13.

Could you elaborate on the first part? (The bonus payment in the player's option being the basis for non approval?)

Thanks.

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I'm guessing it's because any option in the contract must give considerations to both parties in the contract. In other words, in exchange for X, which benefits the party exercising the option, that party grants Y, which benefits the other party. For example, a team pays a bonus (which benefits the player) to extend the contract (which benefits the team). In your proposal for Brady, his "option" grants nothing of benefit to the team -- he gets more money AND gets to void a year of his contract. Simply reducing his base salaries isn't enough to be a benefit for the team, since he gets more money overall.

The loophole that CAN be used to get around the 30 Percent Rule uses what is called a "completion bonus." The Saints have used it three times this offseason and are the only team known to have used a completion bonus in the past 10 years. I posted a full explanation on my comp picks blog (adamjt13.blogspot.com).

omfg another bonus.
thx for the info, adam.

I've been learning a lot about nfl contracts since this whole peppers thing broke.

Yeah, a lot of numbers involved thats for sure!!

aha!

I knew there was a way to sign peppers.

it's a slamdunk now if we can get everybody on board.

AdamJT13 said:

I'm guessing it's because any option in the contract must give considerations to both parties in the contract. In other words, in exchange for X, which benefits the party exercising the option, that party grants Y, which benefits the other party. For example, a team pays a bonus (which benefits the player) to extend the contract (which benefits the team). In your proposal for Brady, his "option" grants nothing of benefit to the team -- he gets more money AND gets to void a year of his contract. Simply reducing his base salaries isn't enough to be a benefit for the team, since he gets more money overall.

The loophole that CAN be used to get around the 30 Percent Rule uses what is called a "completion bonus." The Saints have used it three times this offseason and are the only team known to have used a completion bonus in the past 10 years. I posted a full explanation on my comp picks blog (adamjt13.blogspot.com).

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Could the reason for it's limited use or appeal be that if a player does screw up his guarantee evaporates? Although in the case of Haynesworth the Skins who are usually pretty cap dancing savvy chose instead to add language to the contract permitting them to change his option bonus to signing bonus thereby retaining the right to persue all or part of it any time they felt they had reason to...so perhaps a completion bonus just didn't cut it for that player because while if he screwed up prior to collecting it they would be covered but once they paid it out they would be **** out of luck.

Life is all about tradeoffs. Some players just want a shot at their money, and maybe that was the case in NO. Others want as much as possible upfront while some only care about what is truly guaranteed. Still others and/or their agents appear to want what has the potential or appearance of being the bigger overall deal even when it's not remotely that. Here we call that the Ty Law syndrome.


Edit for anyone who doesn't think Florio spends a lot of time lurking here...his take on completion bonuses posted at 11:01PM...
http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

Edit for anyone who doesn't think Florio spends a lot of time lurking here...his take on completion bonuses posted at 11:01PM...
ProFootballTalk.com - Latest News and Rumors

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I was just reading that. Intriguing to say the least.

Certainly makes a good motivator and in the upcoming year could make way for some safe one-time big spending.

something is up!! i think somethings going down that we dont know about!

KDPPatsfan85 said:

something is up!! i think somethings going down that we dont know about!

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Just stop. You're like a kid on a sugar high over Peppers.

MoLewisrocks said:

Just stop. You're like a kid on a sugar high over Peppers.

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im not even saying Peppers! could be another player that nobody has an idea that he may be up for trade! Im just saying you never know!

JSn said:

I was just reading that. Intriguing to say the least.

Certainly makes a good motivator and in the upcoming year could make way for some safe one-time big spending.

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Not sure how many teams are going to have a lot of free cash hanging around at the end of the 2010 season...heading into 2011.

The largest bonus Kraft ever paid was the $26M split signing/option bonus to Brady. He paid that over 2 seasons. Ditto the $20M to AD. Richard got $18M but in dribs and drabs over several months. Some of that has to do with the cap, but much of it also has to do with trying to run a sound business and a sound football system. This franchise nets $39M per according to Forbes. That's basically your bonus money or profit available for cash over cap spending heading into your next offseason. That's why we tended to alternate heavy and conservative spending on an every other year basis as well as staggering our big ticket signings. Kraft isn't the kind of guy who is going to dip into the family money to fund the football teams bonuses. He expects each of his businesses to pay their own way and fund their own expenses and hopefully turn a little profit. He's investing heavily in developing the land around the stadium and he's still paying off a couple of hundred million in stadium debt (unlike most of the other haves...). And while he takes in more than most in gate receipts, a chunk of that gets lifted out of his pocket for the Ralph Wilson's of the world to squabble over.

Will revenue sharing still be intact in 2010 if there isn't a new CBA?

Frezo said:

Will revenue sharing still be intact in 2010 if there isn't a new CBA?

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I was wondering about that, too.

Either way, I'm over the Peppers thing. Let's find the NEXT Julius Peppers in the draft.

JSn said:

I was wondering about that, too.

Either way, I'm over the Peppers thing. Let's find the NEXT Julius Peppers in the draft.

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Let's not, I'd like more consistency and less prima donna.

Box_O_Rocks said:

Let's not, I'd like more consistency and less prima donna.

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You just like to argue.

"Let's find the next Julius Peppers but if he was consistent and an OLB".

Better?