A Brief Foray Into Sports

I'm a little annoyed at the NFL right now, since it's put me in a position where I feel I need to root for Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. But that's where I'm at.

In 2010, the NFL didn't have a salary cap. In theory, teams could spend as much as they wanted that year, no penalties. Now, the league is fining the Cowboys and the Redskins for their spending during that season, claiming they gained some competitive advantage by how they structured contracts. Again, we're talking about a year in which there were no limits on spending, but the league is coming back the better part of two years later and saying these two teams broke rules.

What rules? Why rules the owners agreed upon amongst themselves. Unofficial rules of course, since they weren't in the collective bargaining agreement at the time. Which sounds like an under the table handshake situation to me, which hardly seems legally binding. In fact, it sounds like collusion, which isn't kosher. But commissioner Roger Goodell clearly fancies himself cock of the walk, so he figures he can get away with it, and none of the other owners object to penalizing two teams that aren't theirs. The players' association didn't object either, but that's because the league threatened to lower the salary cap if the players didn't go along, which would mean less money for the players. So yeah, no coercion there.

Which brings this around to me. I don't root for the Cowboys or the Redskins. Once upon a time, when the Cowboys were good enough to be relevant, I despised them. All the same, I'd love for them to sue the NFL. Make the NFL produce documents showing the rules in place - in 2010, not ones Goodell ginned up 2 years later and is trying to enforce after the fact - that they broke. I don't think the league has anything like that. I think the owners got together over cognac, all "agreed" they'd spend about the same amount, and that there'd be no weird contract tricks. Now they're pissed two owners had their fingers crossed behind their backs. As if no one could foresee two owners who like to spend big (because they think it'll help them win, all recent evidence to the contrary), spending even bigger in an uncapped year.

But Jones and Snyder are going the arbitration hearing route instead, which is probably safer. They're part of the league, they have to get along with the other owners, and Goodell would almost be vindictive if they did sue. But damn, Goodell's become a combination of Stalin and one of those NBA refs who thinks everyone is there to see him call goaltending. The man needs a punch in the nose, and since I'd hate to see anyone go to jail for giving him a literal one, a figurative one is the best I can hope for.

* BountyGate 2! NFL penalizes Redskins when it's revealed Mike Shanahan paid defensive players to hurt former QBs who badmouth him and his son, the offensive coordinator.