Mr. T Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Salary cap in the NFL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap The NFL's cap is a so-called "hard cap," which all teams must stay under at all times; teams face fines and/or the cancellation of contracts for violating or circumventing the cap. There is also a hard floor, a minimum team payroll that must be paid to players. The cap was introduced for the 1994 season and was initially $34.6 million. Both the cap and the floor are adjusted annually based on the league's revenues, and have increased each year. In 2008, the cap will be about $116 million per team, while the floor will be 85.2% of the cap, or $98.8 million; the salary floor percentage will increase 1.2% per year until it reaches 90% of the cap in 2012. Under the NFL's agreement with the NFLPA, the effect on the salary cap of guaranteed payments (such as signing bonuses) are, with a few rare exceptions, prorated evenly over the term of the contract. In transitions, if a player retires, is traded, or is cut before June 1, all remaining bonus is applied to the salary cap for the current season. If the payroll change occurs after June 1, the current season's bonus proration is unchanged, and the next year's cap must absorb the entire remaining bonus. Because of this treatment, NFL contracts almost always include the right to cut a player before the beginning of a season. If a player is cut, his salary for the remainder of his contract is neither paid nor counted against the salary cap for that team. A highly sought-after player signing a long term contract will usually receive a signing bonus, thus providing him with financial security even if he is cut before the end of his contract. Incentive bonuses require a team to pay a player additional money if he achieves a certain goal. For the purposes of the salary cap, bonuses are classified as either "likely to be earned", which requires the amount of the bonus to count against the team's salary cap, or "not likely to be earned", which is not counted. A team's salary cap is adjusted downward for NLTBE bonuses that were earned in the previous year but not counted against that year's cap. It is adjusted upward for LTBE bonuses that were not earned in the previous year but were counted against that year's cap. One effect of the salary cap has been the release of many higher-salaried veteran players and their replacement by lower-salaried players on a given team's payroll over time. On the other hand, many teams have made a practice of exploiting these adjustments and used free agents to restock with better personnel more suited to the team.[7] The salary cap prevents teams with a superior financial situation from the formerly widespread practice of stocking as much talent on the roster as possible by placing younger players on reserve lists with false injuries while they develop into NFL-capable players. In this respect, it functions as a supplement to the 53-man roster limit and practice squad limits. Generally, the practice of retaining veteran players who had contributed to the team in the past, but whose abilities have declined, even those who are fan favorites has become less common in the era of the salary cap. A veteran's minimum salary is required to be higher than a player with lesser experience. This means teams tend to favour cheaper, less experienced prospects with growth potential, with an aim to having a group of players who quickly develop into their prime while still being on cheaper contracts than their peers. To offset this dollars and cents driven tendency, the players' association accepted an arrangement so that a veteran player who receives no bonuses in his contract may be paid the veteran minimum of up to $810,000, while only accounting for $425,000 in salary-cap space. The salary cap has also served to limit the rate of increase of the cost of operating a team. This has accrued to the owners' benefit, and is widely regarded as being responsible for the NFL being overall the most financially stable of the major North American sports organizations.[citation needed] While the initial cap of $34.6 million has increased to $102 million, this is due to large growths of revenue, including merchandising revenues and web enterprises which ownership is sharing with players as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NFL OFFSEASON 2009 Jan. 15 -- DRAFT: Deadline for underclassmen applying for early the NFL draft Jan. 18 -- DRAFT: Deadline for underclassmen to withdraw application for early entry to NFL draft Jan. 19-24 -- DRAFT: Senior Bowl Week Feb. 1 -- NFL: Super Bowl (Cardinals Win) Feb. 8 -- NFL: Pro Bowl (DA gets second opportunity by default again) Feb 15 -- NFL: Signing period deadline for Canadian Football League players under contract Feb 22 -- NFL: Deadline for teams to designate franchise and transition tags, one each, for an extensive write-up, check out Ask The Commish Feb. 19-24 -- DRAFT: Scouting Combine March 1 -- NFL: teams must be under salary cap March 3 -- NFL: trading and veteran free agent signing periods begins April 15 -- NFL: restricted free agent signing period ends April 25-26 -- DRAFT: 2009 NFL Draft, Seahawks pick no. 4 May TBD -- NFL: Mini camp July TBD -- NFL: Training camp, late July Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gips Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Salary cap in the NFL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap NFL OFFSEASON 2009 Feb. 1 -- NFL: Super Bowl (Steelers Win) Looks like you made a typo Mr.T so i fixed it for ya! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. T Posted January 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 wishful thinking on my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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