Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins Fall Victim to Shrewd NFL Maneuvering

National Football League 1, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins 0. Or something like that.

It looks as though the NFL has succeeded in punishing the Cowboys and Redskins for allegedly disobeying a verbal—not written, but verbal—mandate and handing out front-loaded contracts to take advantage of the uncapped 2010 season.

The teams appealed a penalty that docked the Redskins $36 million and the Cowboys $10 million in cap money over a two-year period, but that challenge has been dismissed by arbitrator Stephen Burbank, the league announced at Tuesday's owners meetings in Atlanta.

As a result, both teams will have little choice but to accept the consequences of what they claim to be non-malicious actions. 

By all indications, the league was thinking several steps ahead here. When it lowered the guillotine on both teams' cap space back in March, it knew that it had the support and the political capital to shut down any form of resistance. Commissioner Roger Goodell rarely picks fights he can't win.

Burbank likely ruled against the appeal because the NFLPA signed off on the sanctions earlier in the offseason. And that might have only happened because the NFL strong-armed the players association by essentially issuing an ultimatum. Details from Rich Champbell of the Washington Times:

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According to a league source with knowledge of the situation, owners would not set the 2012 salary cap and move forward into the new league year until the union agreed to one of two options: either a lower salary cap in 2012 than in 2011, or salary cap penalties against the Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, with that cap space distributed equally among 28 other clubs. New Orleans and Oakland were excluded from the redistribution because owners determined they engaged in similar contract-shifting practices to a lesser extent.

Because the NFLPA represents players employed by all teams, not just the Redskins or Cowboys, it agreed to the option that pays the most money to players throughout the league, even though that came at the expense of Washington and Dallas.

"

With both parties from the collective bargaining agreement and 29 of the 32 teams on board— Washington and Dallas voted against the penalties, while the Buccaneers abstained—the 'Skins and Cowboys didn't have much of a leg to stand on.

Now, the league has essentially cornered both teams. The catch-22: Accept the sanctions and handicap yourself financially for the rest of this offseason and all of the next one, or sue the league and risk hurting your own reputation by exposing the dirty laundry of all 32 teams.

This certainly sucks for both organizations because they're essentially being penalized for not complying with non-binding and seemingly unofficial orders to collude. The good news for both teams is that they're halfway there with their rosters already in fine shape for 2012. 

With two years to get creative, this probably won't do any real damage to the Dallas roster, but it could slow down the 'Skins a bit in Year 2 of the Robert Griffin III era.

And while neither team was smart to front-load contracts when the rest of the league was avoiding such shenanigans, those deals were all approved at the time, proving how poorly this ordeal was handled. 

The most unfortunate part is that the players pay the price. Victims of Goodell's power.