As the NFL stumbles into its first uncapped year since 1993 I can’t help, but be a little concerned about the future of the sport I love. The player’s association said that if there was an uncapped year this season they would never agree to a cap again. So not only is there potential work stoppage in 2011, but now there’s the chance that the NFL (best ran professional sports league in the world) will go down the same sorted path as Major League Baseball.
I’m not so concerned with the uncapped ’10 season, because there are built-in limitations, or “poison pills”, which prevents teams from spending like crazy. Another comforting factor is that football and baseball are very different in nature. In baseball you can build up your pitching staff or add a few big bats and make a marked improvement in your team. In football you need 11 guys on each side of the ball that are solid and operating as a cohesive unit. Moreover, you need players that fit in your system. Savvy NFL owners know that you build your team through the draft and not free agency. Good teams use free agency to make calculated upgrades when needed and to sign their own guys, who they’ve spent years grooming. Dan Snyder is a prime example of someone who has tried to operate with a Steinbrenner-mentality and failed.
All that being said, big market teams have a tremendous competitive advantage when there isn’t a cap to level the playing field. I don’t want to rehash the argument about how Major League Baseball is structurally flawed without a cap. And I realize that some small market teams, like the Twins, have been competitive in recent years, but are they competing for a championship or just the right to lose to the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs? Small market teams in the MLB just can’t afford to make mistakes in free agency. And when they develop their own talent it’s just a matter of time before it’s shipped away to New York and Boston. The only reason the Twins will keep Joe Mauer is, because he’s a hometown guy and all-around decent human being who wants to be in Minnesota. Nine-and-a-half times out of ten he’d be packing his bags to sign a $200 million dollar contract.
NFL fans, is this what you want the league to become? What if you knew your favorite team had no chance of keeping the star quarterback they drafted? Or, what if your owner routinely Donald Sterling-ed your roster, because there is no salary basement?
Who knows, maybe the owners and players can agree on an uncapped structure with rules and regulations (like the “final eight” rule), which keeps parity in the league. I just hope they didn’t mess up a good thing.
~Pat Cary
Filed under: Football, NFL | Tagged: Joe Mauer, MLB, NFL Free Agency, Salary Cap
Pat,
Thanks for the article…great insight. My main concern is the small market teams who are forced to spend a minimum amount of money under the current salary structure will decide to spend way less under an uncapped collective bargaining agreement. I don’t worry about the big market teams overspending relative to their peers, I worry that the bottom 10 small market teams that will spend next to nothing and field the equivalent to the Pittsburgh Pirates every year. Part of what makes the NFL great is the parity amongst the 32 teams. I don’t mind the NFL being a bit top heavy to give the league some marquee Champions. But we can’t have a dozen teams that truly can’t compete at a legit NFL level. That would be a crime.
C’mon Ravens….bring on Boldin!!! Because we haven’t heard a peep out of the Ravens front office regarding Boldin, you know they are interested!!
Pat,
GREAT article. The best you’ve written yet. Short, sweet, and to the point. And on a legit subject too.
On topic, there are two HUGE differences between baseball and football.
1. Football is a combat sport, and injuries play a FAR bigger role than they do in baseball. As such, the risk-premium to over-paying for bums (like Danny-boy did with the likes of Jason Taylor, Fat Albert, and others) is much higher in the NFL. Small-market teams can be more competitive in the NFL even IF they sign name-brand players, because a lot of those high-priced players may not play the full 16-game schedule.
2. Baseball playes a 6-month schedule, whereas there are only 8 home games in the NFL. A place like Pittsburgh can pack 70-80K fans into a stadium for 8 Sundays a year; it’s WAY harder to fill a baseball stadium (even for a perennial powerhouse) for a full slate of 81 games per year.
I’m not saying the NFL shouldn’t have a salary cap; I think the jury is IN on a cap being beneficial to the league. But I don’t think it will have as adverse an effect as it has had in baseball.
Looks like the Ravens are eying Walters from Houston and Boldin. If they obtain those two I think Mason will be out and probably become a Dolphin. Looks like Bannon and Edwards are as good as gone. Bannon is a run stopping beast and Edwards really came on the last two years after a slow start to his career…I wish them both well.
Thank the Lord the Ravens tendered Yanda…he is very underrated as a guard and can also fill in at RT. Clayton also got a 2nd round tender…I know Jimmy is praying that some teams signs him to an offer sheet, taking him off our hands and giving us a 2nd round pick.
Woodman – I agree that there will be some cheap-o owners out there that will cut salary and put a garbage product out on the field. Like I said in the blog, some owners will take a nod from Donald Sterling.
Beagle – I generally agree that the NFL would probably handle a non-capped league much better than MLB. The best thing about NFL deals is that they are for the most part not guaranteed. I mean players get guaranteed money, but the contracts as a whole are not…No risk of signing the football equivalent to Albert Belle. I mean you’ll take a cap hit, but you won’t pay a bum to sit on the couch.
I think an uncapped league would be manageable in the NFL as well.
Look at this year when everyone thought that teams were going to spend out of control. They still have to budget accordingly when you’re talking about a 65 man roster.
The reason it doesn’t work in the MLB (what, 25 player roster) and NBA (12 player roster) is because there are less players and still a lot of money to go around. Teams can afford to spend ridiculous guaranteed dollar amounts on players in these leagues where they’d be out of business doing it with 65 players in the NFL.