Dallas Cowboys Wasting Time Filing Grievance Over Salary Cap Penalty
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones knew exactly what he was doing when he loaded up receiver Miles Austin‘s contract to take a large salary cap hit during the uncapped 2010 NFL season. However, now Jones doesn’t want to accept responsibility for that. After the Cowboys were hit with a $10 million cap penalty, Jones and Co. are filing a grievance against the NFL. It’s a waste of time, though; NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recently made it clear he’s not playing games with rule-breakers – just ask the New Orleans Saints.
The Cowboys and Washington Redskins were both hit with cap penalties two weeks ago, although Washington’s was a much steeper punishment at $36 million. Both teams have filed a grievance against the NFL and the NFLPA, but likely to no avail.
The NFLPA has already agreed to set the 2012 salary cap at $120.6 million, which is higher than it would have been, to help Dallas and Washington work through their penalties. The Cowboys have done a nice job of working around the penalty by legally restructuring the contracts of Dez Bryant, Doug Free and Orlando Scandrick, clearing roughly $17 million in cap space. Dallas then released David Buehler, Terence Newman and Kyle Kosier to clear up almost $10 million more in cap space.
Jerry Jones’ son, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, said his team isn’t concerned with the penalty.
“Obviously, getting the cap hit, you have to deal with it and there’s ramifications of that,” Stephen Jones said. “But it’s not going to stop us from being able to do the things we have to do to be a championship-caliber football team in 2012.”
Dallas may have been able to work through the penalty without any trouble thus far, but New York Giants owner John Mara agrees the Joneses are wasting time by filing the grievance.
“I thought the penalties imposed were proper,” Mara said. “They attempted to take advantage of it knowing full well there would be consequences. I think they’re lucky they didn’t lose draft picks.”
Mara is exactly right; the Cowboys and Redskins were caught with their hands in the cookie jar and now want to avoid the consequences. The ruling on the grievance is up to NFL arbitrator Stephen Burbank and, quite frankly, he shouldn’t even blink before enforcing the penalties.
Jerry Jones is a genius of a business man and he’s the best in the business when it comes to maximizing fan experience. However, he broke a rule that was clearly stated knowing there would be consequences and now it’s time to face them. In fact, the Cowboys and Redskins shouldn’t even be allowed to file grievances for such a penalty. That’s because NFL teams were reportedly warned eight times about the potential penalties of front-loading contracts during the uncapped 2010 seasons.
As mentioned, the Cowboys have made some phenomenal moves this off-season in free agency to help make Dallas a championship-caliber team in 2012. However, the Joneses’ work isn’t finished, so they should shift their focus back to personnel and away from the cap penalties, which are justified and will rightly be enforced.
Follow Jeric Griffin on Twitter @JericGriffin or on Facebook at Jeric Griffin – Rant Sports
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You are wrong. This isn’t about what they did, this is about legal. They broke no WRITTEN rules. Everything was approved by the commissioner with a smile on his face. Facts are facts. Collusion by the NFL will cause this thing come to a much quicker end in favor of Dallas and the Redskins.
You should do some research. John Mara did nothing but help them two teams win as well. It’s a tall tale sign. He knows these teams did nothing wrong so he is running his mouth. Snyder and Jones know they can win, and continue to remain silent. NFL knows they have no chance since nothing was illegal about the move.
Ramifications for this go into much larger things. For example, what was the purpose of the lockout if there ‘WAS’ a salary cap that season. Etc. The NFL forced the NFLPA to agree to this punishment or threatened a lower salary cap for all players.
There is so much more into this story then your mind has even touched yet. Feel free to read and realize this will be shot down, and/or cost the NFL a LOT of money.
Best thing to do is for Roger G. to come to his senses and lift the penalty before it get’s ugly. Maybe Snyder and Jones can’t win championships, but they won’t lost financial penalty battles.
Do yourself a favor, and apply this to any other business or action that happens in society. I go make a ton of money off of people doing something that is completely legal, but someone say’s is wrong and you shouldn’t do without a written agreement of any form, and no law prohibiting it on books.
What legal action can anyone take against me?
Try this article for more information to help your knowledge.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/56149/im-not-sure-john-mara-should-be-talking
Mara effectively admitted to collusion.
Here are some good quotes for you.
“It’s unknown whether the Redskins and Cowboys are bluffing in order to force a compromise, or whether they indeed truly intend to file suit. Reducing the allegations to writing necessarily will expose that the league was engaged in collusion in 2010, which could have all sorts of unintended consequences for the entire NFL, including the Redskins and the Cowboys.”
“Mara is wrong because, by effectively admitting collusion, he’s giving the NFLPA ammunition for a new fight the league does not want. The union had to drop all pending litigation against the league as part of the Brady settlement last year when the lockout ended. That included the collusion charges they filed against the league for the suspicions they had about this kind of 2010 activity. Mara’s admission could well qualify as new evidence that could allow the union to file new charges. And because the NFLPA is named in the Redskins’ and Cowboys’ complaint, it has the option of obtaining discovery on collusion should it wish to pursue action against the league. The union is upset that the league backed it into a corner here, effectively forcing it to agree to the penalties against the Cowboys and Redskins under the threat of a reduction in this year’s salary cap, and would love an opening from which to attack on this.”
NFL does not want this to go to courts, and the least that will happen is a greatly reduced penalty and or elimination of it all together.
Here is your most absurd quote of your whole article that might just be an attention grabber instead of having an legit substance.
“The ruling on the grievance is up to NFL arbitrator Stephen Burbank and, quite frankly, he shouldn’t even blink before enforcing the penalties.”
You really thing a legal minded arbitrator would lean this way? I would tell you to put down the drink, and go to sleep for a while to sober up. I hope your not in law school of any form.
Now, see, here we have a guy who knows very little about the Cowboys’ situation but thinks he does, and who has no idea whether Jerry Jones has a chance of success, but thinks he does. Sad.
Jones didn’t front-load multiple players’ contracts. He did it for one player: Miles Austin, and the way it was structured wasn’t out of line. He gave him a big signing bonus, which is par for the course for the Cowboys. Had this not been an uncapped year, nobody would’ve raised an eyebrow.
Secondly, this contract was approved by the league at the time it was submitted. How can the NFL now turn around and try to claim it was not in keeping with their guidelines?
Thirdly, how can the NFL claim that there was a “gentleman’s agreement” to do things in a certain way? Isn’t that another term for “collusion”? And isnt that illegal under antitrust laws?