Uncapped year and greed

I hope that this rash of contract issues is about the uncapped year and not the ‘disease of me’

The one thing that this season does, and how it changes the position of players who are pining for more money, is that it flips the contract discussion in a way that previously was easier to avoid.  Typically, NFL franchises have always discussed contracts as how much a player will earn in future seasons based upon what the player and the team can project the player is worth for his FUTURE contributions.

Now, with no cap restriction, the team cannot say to a player, “wait, wait, wait, we would love to pay you much more than this amount if we could but you have to understand that the salary cap limits us… if you want to play for a competitive team you will need to accept pay that will allow the team to retain the pieces necessary to keep winning.”

This difference puts players in a position that they previously were not in.  They can come back to the front office and say, “well Mr. Irsay, I’ve always been a team player and understood the limitations on you in order to remain competitive in the NFL and within the constraints of the salary cap rules of the CBA… BUT… I think we can agree that I have been an important part of helping this franchise win 12 games a year, go to two Super Bowl games, have been voted to multiple Pro Bowls, and brought home a championship.”