Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins vs. the NFL and 'the Spirit'

Remember the words: “The Spirit of the Salary Cap.” This epic phrase was uttered by John Mara, owner of the New York Giants, and current head of the NFL Management Council. In a statement given to reporters about the salary cap penalties issued to the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, Mr. Mara summoned the mythical "spirit of the salary cap," explaining that the Cowboys and Redskins violated "the Spirit" and “I think they're lucky they didn't lose draft picks."

Lucky they didn’t lose draft picks? We are talking about a situation where no rules were broken, no regulation of any sort was disregarded, and yet Mara would suggest the loss of draft picks would be appropriate? With such a sensitive issue, Mara should leave the hyperbole in the owner's box.

New York Times reporter Judy Battista reported that “teams had been warned by the league not to dump salaries or front-load contracts to take advantage of the uncapped year, although there was nothing in writing mandating it. To highlight that quote again, in 2010 there was no salary cap. 

Pretty hard to impose millions in penalties (to be graciously donated to all the other NFL teams except New Orleans) and talk about losing draft picks when an imaginary salary cap violation by the Cowboys and Redskins happened to an imaginary salary cap. Adding to the already bizarre case, the NFL approved of the very contract restructuring which they are now penalizing them for.

Seriously, I’m not making this up.

The fact Mara is the owner of the New York Giants is not meaningful except in regards to perception. A council headed by an NFC East rival enthusiastically supports the punishment levied, and while his team pockets its share of the Redskins' and Cowboys' money, he jumps the shark by bringing draft picks into the mix.

Dan Graziano of ESPN Dallas/Forth Worth writes about the NFC East. He brings up a good point regarding other teams that violated Mr. Mara’s “Spirit.” He writes:

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If this penalty was rooted in common sense, the NFL's owners would be mad at teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who spent well below the level where the salary floor would have been. If this were really an issue of future competitive balance, as the ruling establishing the punishments claims it is, then teams that didn't spend enough in 2010 would be punished as well.

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The NFL and Mara have not addressed this issue, nor do I expect they will. They can’t. The teams benefiting financially from the hit job done on the Redskins and Cowboys—yet which remain silent on the case—are just fooling themselves. No one benefits when arbitrary punishments are handed out based on violations of non-existent rules (front-loaded contracts) of non-existent rules (no salary cap). 

What is to stop the same type of thing from happening to any other team at the whim of the NFL and its managing bodies? Being complicit and just going along with the actions of the NFL is nothing more than a silent endorsement.

There are plenty of people who turn a blind eye to what is happening here; others agree with John Mara and the NFL. While the “Spirit” of the salary cap is fine and dandy, it is one lousy excuse for a legal or ethical foundation of governance. Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder have no intention of letting this house of cards go unchallenged. The Cowboys and Redskins have taken their only real recourse and filed suit against the league and the NFLPA.