Question showing my ignorance of the business

[shirtsleeve]

I asked this question in the middle of of another thread on the main board and so far it has gone unanswered. What exactly are the penalties for exceeding the cap in the NFL? Are these penalties enforced as per weeks over, amount over, or both? What would happen, say to Snyder and the Skins if he just said F it and spent 200mill on salary, trying to buy a ring ala Steinbrenner? Inquiring minds want to know?

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

I don't know exactly what they would do if a team refused to get under the cap but there's a date by which every team has to be under the cap. There's no penalties - you just aren't allowed to do it. You can't be over the cap and pay a fine.

If it came to it, I imagine the NFL would just release players to become FA until the team got under the cap but, again, I don't know the exact mechanism; I just know it can't happen.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

If it isn't in Miguel's FAQ's, you might want to ask him directly.

 

[shirtsleeve]

I don't know exactly what they would do if a team refused to get under the cap but there's a date by which every team has to be under the cap. There's no penalties - you just aren't allowed to do it. You can't be over the cap and pay a fine.

If it came to it, I imagine the NFL would just release players to become FA until the team got under the cap but, again, I don't know the exact mechanism; I just know it can't happen.

Thats kinda what I thought. Gee, I my doc tells me I just cant eat eggs, too. But if I'm willing to pay the price, then I can say F you Doc and go have a dozen!
If the league just sends a nasty letter and not even penalizes with fines, then I would laugh at them and do what I wanted. I think that if a team is over the cap by the drop dead date, they should lose draft picks. Have a sliding scale, 1 mil over, lose a 7, 2 lose a 6etc until you get to 7 mil, then at 8 mil over, you lose a 1 and a 7, etc. Also, lose an extra pick for every week over the cap. Then, when the regular season starts, if the team remains over the cap, the active roster goes into a hat and the league pulls names to sit the game till the team is under the cap. Otherwise a team like Indy will just bust the cap by a mil or two and not lose all the FA's this year.

 

[shirtsleeve]

But with the cap being a limit, what would happen if a team spent more than the cap allowed? The short answer is: no team is able to. This is due in most part to the fact that teams have to have all player contracts approved by the league.


"By the first day of the new league year (which this year it's March 2) we have to be in compliance," Xanders said. "Our salary cap has to be under $78.7 million. If you're not in compliance by March 2, you have seven days to be."


And if you're not in compliance after those seven days?

I went to miguel, followed the links and got my answer:


http://www.atlantafalcons.com/team/article.jsp?id=2695

"The last contracts that you signed players to automatically become void and those players become free agents until your charges do come under the cap," Xanders replied. "But that's never happened."


"It's different from the NBA where, if you go over, you have to pay a luxury tax," Beadles echoed. "In the NFL, if you're over the salary cap, then they start making contracts void.


"If you don't decide which players you don't want on your roster, the league will."

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/faq.asp

"Question 1.13
So...what happens if a team goes over the Salary Cap?


Answer: The short answer is simply that NO team CAN go over the Salary Cap. Note that every contract must go through the NFL League Office before the deal can be made official. Presumably, one of the things the league must do at this time is determine whether or not the contract would violate the NFL's Salary Cap. If the deal does violate the cap, then the NFL will reject it.

If a team releases or trades a player and the signing bonus acceleration puts a team over the Salary Cap, the team will have seven days to conform with the Salary Cap. However, they may not sign any players until there is room to do so under the Salary Cap.

There have been instances in which a team has managed to sneak a cap evading contract by the league. Upon further review, the violations were caught by the league and the respective teams were penalized. Penalties include fines and/or forfeiture of draft picks. In recent history both the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers have been penalized draft picks, while the 49ers' front office personnel (Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark) were also fined."