---
Posted on Thu, Sep. 04, 2003
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/6691435.htm
---

By MICHAEL LEV
The Orange County Register

Two days before the start of the NFL season, the New England
Patriots ended a long-standing relationship.

The Patriots released four-time Pro Bowl strong safety Lawyer
Milloy, who is still in his prime, because they couldn't afford to
keep him.

Coach Bill Belichick called it the hardest cut of his career. Milloy's
ex-teammates expressed shock, outrage and sadness. One of
them, cornerback Ty Law, saw the move for what it was.

"It's dollars and cents, basically, in this business," Law said. "It's
not really a matter of what you do, because who could question
what Lawyer Milloy did on the field?"

The Patriots wanted Milloy to keep wearing their helmet. They
just couldn't figure out a way to fit him under their cap. Cap is
short for salary cap, the NFL's version of cost control, the most
influential change in pro football since the advent of the wing-T.

This season is the 10th featuring the salary cap, and managing
it has become as much a part of the game as running, blocking
and tackling.

The NFL and its players union agreed to a salary cap in 1993,
and it went into effect the next season. They married it to free
agency - creating unprecedented freedom of movement for
players - and, for better or worse, the system will be in place
for at least three seasons after this one.

As we embark on the 10th capped year, here are 10 ways the
salary cap and free agency have impacted the sport.

1. Labor peace

The NFL hasn't had a work stoppage since 1987. Each of the
other three major professional sports has had at least one since
then. Major League Baseball is still trying to win back fans after
labor strife forced the cancellation of the World Series in 1994.

"I think it is the most important factor for the entire league, for
the success we have enjoyed," said Harold Henderson, exec-
utive vice president for labor relations and chairman of the NFL
Management Council executive committee.

"Having this labor stability enables us to get better deals in tele-
vision contracts, better deals from sponsors, the fans feel better
about it. There's a lot of bitterness when there's a strike. It makes
for a healthy business all around."

Despite some complaints and imperfections, the league and the
NFL Players Association have extended the original collective
bargaining agreement four times, with various modifications. With
the focus on football, the NFL has distanced itself from the other
sports, clearly emerging as America's favorite pastime.

"In the business of sports, the NFL is the example," said Paul
Anderson, associate director of the National Sports Law Institute
at Marquette University. "The NFL is the most popular sport. They're
making the most money. So, obviously, they're doing it right."

2. Fortune and freedom

The salary cap limits how much each team can spend, but it has
more than doubled in 10 years, growing from $34.6 million per
team in 1994 to $75 million this season. The figure is a percentage
of the NFL's Defined Gross Revenues, so the more the league
brings in, the more its owners and players stand to make.

Players have greater leverage now thanks to free agency; they
can become unrestricted free agents after four years in the league.

"There was a time, when you talked about any type of free agency
in the NFL, it was pure heresy," said Ralph Cindrich, a player agent
since 1985. "The party line from the NFL was that you'll never see
it happen."

Thanks to the money-making opportunities afforded his clients,
Cindrich was able to buy hockey star Mario Lemieux's mansion in
the Pittsburgh area, complete with pool and waterfall. "I could have
never done that but for this system," Cindrich said.

3. Maddening movement

Player prosperity hasn't necessarily improved the quality of life
for coaches and executives. Although the system has been in
place for a decade, the prospect of losing a good player after
four years is still unsettling.

"There used to be an adage, you'd draft a guy like Anthony Munoz
and say, 'We're set at left tackle for the next 15 years,'" New York
Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi said. "That's not the case
anymore. You're not set anywhere."

Jay Zygmunt, president of football operations for the St. Louis
Rams, estimates that a third of his roster changes every season.
Only 12 players remain from the Rams team that won the Super
Bowl in January 2000.

4. Death of dynasties

The salary cap prevents teams such as the Rams from keeping
all their all-stars.

"This system gave us an opportunity to improve ourselves,"
Zygmunt said. "Correspondingly, the same system, once you
become successful, it begins to undermine you."

The Rams had no choice but to trade valuable backup QB Trent
Green, originally signed to be their starter and making starter's
money, to Kansas City after the 2000 season. They then lost
starting middle linebacker London Fletcher to Buffalo after the
2001 season.

The Rams made it back to the Super Bowl in Fletcher's last year;
they are the only team to have gone to more than one in the past
four seasons. NFL officials link free agency and the salary cap
to the disappearance of dynasties.

Chargers general manager A.J. Smith said it would be "impos-
sible" for a team under the current system to match the Buffalo
Bills' run of four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, the last
coming after the 1993 season, the last uncapped year.

"I don't think it'll ever happen again," said Smith, a member of
the Bills organization from 1987-2000. "It's just very difficult to
keep your players. They all think they were a major part of the
success and want to get paid, each and every one of them.
That's the problem - they can't all be paid. Do the math."

5. Any given season

The dynasty debate has raged for years, divided mostly along
geographical lines.

Dallas executive vice president Stephen Jones longs for the
days when every Cowboys-San Francisco 49ers matchup "was
like an NFC Championship Game."

The system has not been kind to the Cowboys and 49ers. Both
had to rebuild because of salary-cap issues and have been
unable to regain their lofty standing after combining for six Super
Bowl titles in an eight-year stretch ending in January 1996.

"If you want equality ... and for every team to have a shot no
matter where they've been the year before, you've got that,"
Jones said. "The system is built to bring the top teams down
and the bottom teams up."

St. Louis, Baltimore and New England won Super Bowls after
failing to make the playoffs the previous season. Tampa Bay
broke that trend last season, but the Buccaneers were among
the NFL's most consistent losers before 1997.

"I lived in a city where the team was not competitive for a long
time, and that affected our interest in football in general," Tampa
Bay GM Rich McKay said. "Twenty-eight of (32 teams) are talking
about competing for a championship. That's a good thing."

6. Fiscal responsibility

McKay and the Bucs are practitioners of one of the two main cap-
management strategies that has evolved over the past decade.
They try to identify their core players, re-sign them before they
become free agents and use free agency to complement that
nucleus.

Their roster has changed dramatically over the years, especially
on offense, but star defensive players Warren Sapp, Derrick
Brooks and John Lynch have spent their entire careers in Tampa
Bay.

Miami hasn't reached the Super Bowl in the past nine years but
has kept its defense largely intact, leading to seven playoff
appearances.

The system allows a team to collect and keep good players on
one side of the ball, if not both.

"In this system, you always have to make choices," Zygmunt
said. "In order to sign that second receiver, it may cost you
your third linebacker."

7. Eventual 'dead' end

In trying to win it all in the mid-1990s, the Cowboys tried to have
it all. They continually renegotiated their star players' deals, freeing
up money to sign veteran help by converting base salaries into
signing bonuses. The system allows teams to spend over the
cap - in cash - because signing bonuses are prorated over the
length of players' contracts.

Eventually, the Cowboys' spending caught up with them. In 2001
they had more than $25 million in "dead money" - cap space
taken up by players no longer on their roster. About $10 million
stemmed from quarterback Troy Aikman's contract; it had been
restructured "about every year," Jones said, but multiple concus-
sions forced Aikman to stop playing after the 2000 season.

"At the time, it fit us," Jones said of Dallas' go-for-it mentality.
"We went out and got Deion (Sanders) and got another Super
Bowl (their third in the '90s). There are still many teams that
haven't won a Super Bowl. The fact we had to pay for that for
a year or two, I don't think that's that high a price to pay."

8. The 'capologist'

Dallas is taking a more measured approach these days. Jones
spoke admiringly of division-rival Philadelphia, which has gone
to consecutive NFC title games without overspending on free
agents.

The Eagles have been consistently competitive yet consistently
under the cap thanks to team president Joe Banner, who is
considered the league's best "capologist," the relatively new
role of salary-cap expert.

"A guy like that is indispensable," Accorsi said. "Every team has
one. Some teams have two."

Jacksonville put Paul Vance in charge of its cap in November
2001. Vance, who did not have a sports background before
joining the Jaguars in 1994, implemented a model that would
project the economic impact of any personnel decision over
a three-year period. He made it visually appealing, using a
spreadsheet and a projector, and simple enough for everyone
from owner to coach to understand.

"I've got to be able to let them know you can afford to do this,
that or the other thing, and this is what it does this year, next
year and the year after," Vance said. "You can't be static."

9. Just in case ...

Vance said his goal is to have some degree of financial flex-
ibility.

"There are a lot of things that happen in the real world," he
said, "and you better have (cap) room."

The biggest variable in any season is injuries, and their effect
is even more pronounced in the salary-cap era.

Free agency opens opportunities for veteran backups to pur-
sue starting jobs, and the teams that drafted them often can't
afford to keep them. As a result, teams are forced to stock
their reserves with younger, cheaper players.

At one point last season Tennessee had five rookies in its
defensive huddle. "That was unheard-of in 1994," Titans
coach Jeff Fisher said.

Fisher said it's impossible to absorb multiple injuries at one
position. That's what happened to his secondary in 2001,
the only time in the past four seasons the Titans failed to
make the playoffs.

10. Stressing stability

With players changing teams every year and teams excising
veterans they would have kept if the salary cap did not exist,
coaching-staff stability is critically important.

"That gives you an edge," Fisher said. "Imagine a lack of
stability and a 20 percent turnover of players (annually)."

A lack of cohesiveness might explain the Washington Red-
skins' inability to climb over .500. Owner Daniel Snyder has
spent generously on players but also has employed four head
coaches in the past four seasons.

Snyder dipped into the college ranks for Steve Spurrier, who
begins his second season tonight, and Fisher believes more
teams will go that route. Younger rosters put a premium on
teaching. It isn't the only way the system reminds Fisher of
college.

"We have, in essence, incoming freshmen," he said. "By the
time they're seniors, after four years, you have to make a
decision."

It remains a learning process for everyone.

---

Archived from group: alt>sports>football>pro>dallas-cowboys