Quote:
Originally Posted by tooge
The NFL fined the Broncos a 3rd round pick for circumventing the salary cap in 1997 and 1998. That is a fact. Without doing so, they wouldn't have been able to bring back Elway, Davis, Sharpe, and several other key players. So, in everyone elses mind, they cheated to win a couple of SBs and the cheating is legitimized by the penalty imposed by the NFL
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Ok, you're making one small mistake - they didn't "
circumvent the salary cap." They "
violated salary cap rules."
Ok, very funny, what's the difference? But there is a difference. To gain an advantage, to free up more money for players, the Broncos (or any team) would have to submit forged player contracts to the League, showing lower salary amounts in order to free up funds (hey Peter Gibbons, now THAT'S math!). Not even the Union said that, the NFLPA. The Union's statement said:
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"The approved procedures for deferring any portion of a player's compensation are spelled out in the CBA. In addition to violating these procedures, the Team failed to disclose to the Union it had entered into illegal deferments with the Players."
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The only possible explanation how it might have given them a competitive advantage is - and this is complicated, so follow - the deferment agreements obviously included some additional compensation for agreeing to defer. It's not free, Elway and TD at least got interest on the amounts they deferred. Oh my gawd ...
Oh my gawd, I'll bet that's it! The private agreement to defer part of their salaries included, of course, interest on the money being deferred! That interest almost certainly was NOT reported to the union or the league, and that was what pushed us over the cap! We damn sure as hell didn't submit fraudulent and forged contracts to the League and the union.
How about that ... none of the parties have been permitted to explain the specifics of what the league based its penalties on, due to players' privacy. But this would explain it, this would be a violation of the cap itself, and would explain why the League refused to say it was intended to create a competitive advantage. And a 3rd round pick is nothing compared to what the Cowboys and Redskins were penalized - what the league didn't hesitate to call an intentional effort to create an advantage.