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Friday, September 23, 2005
The over the hill gang
As long as we're talking football here at 3WN today here's a little idea I have been kicking around for a while. I think there should be some sort of salary cap exception for aging players who may no longer be starters so that they can stay with their original team rather than playing their last year or two on some other team. Maybe something akin to putting a franchise tag on a player. Call it a legacy tag. Any player who has played 10 years for the team and plays no more than 25% of snaps in a game (excepting in cases of injury to someone ahead of him on the depth chart) either does not count against the cap or is computed at some lower rate. Granted there are a number that would still leave in an attempt to get a little more playing time somewhere else (or get cut because they just aren't productive enough) but still it would be nice if guys who have spent their career on a particular team could play their last few years there rather than being forced out solely for cap reasons. I doubt this would have much practical effect on team performance but it would be a way to reward that sort of team loyalty that has been diminished under the modern NFL rules.
11 Comments:
You promised to shut up about football.
By 
Joey de Vivre, at
11:57 AM
A cap exception wouldn't have any effect unless you also wanted to add a roster exception to that "legacy tag".
NFL teams are only allowed to have 53 players (only 45 of whom are allowed to be "active" at any one time). Without a roster exemption, no NFL team is going to waste these limited roster spots on players who are rarely on the field.
If you did add a roster exemption, it would create a competitve imbalance by allowing some teams to have extra "fresh" players they could rotate in during games.
Also, changing the NFL rules for Brett Favre is WRONG. Go Vikes.
I thought about the roster aspect. And this sort of thing wouldn't really apply to anyone who is actually a starter. What it really does is let a team reward a player who has demonstrated a real connection to a particular team. Your aging star at the number 4 WR position may be playing at the same level as some second year 4th stringer but under the cap rules you will always let go the star (no matter how much he means to the team or city) because he costs so much more. My system simply avoids that situation and I readily admit that it might not be something that comes into play very often. How often does a player re-sign with his old team just for a day so he can retire from there? Not that often but it seems like this would be adifferent avenue for those rare players.
Joey, it turns out Washington has a bye this week so I figure I still can milk this thing for another 9 days.
I don't think Jambo is talking about (or even cares about) Favre. He's a Washington Profoundly Racist Nickname fan. That said, there is an exception for veterans already: "Generally, the practice of keeping older players who had contributed to the team in the past, but whose abilities have declined had declined, as a veteran's minimum salary was required to be higher than a player with lesser experience. To prevent this, a veteran player who receives no bonuses in his contract may be payed the veteran minimum of $650,000, while only accounting for $450,000 in salary cap space."
For wanna be salary cap wonks, check this out
If you are not good enough to play good bye. Football is a young mans game. If you want to keep and old man around put them in the front office, with the rest of the wantabes. Play hard or go home. Stover
By 
, at
1:41 PM
Holy crap! Did Congress write those salary cap rules?
By Joey de Vivre, at
4:38 PM
My apologies, Jambo. I just read this post immediately after the one about Favre and assumed they were connected. I didn't mean to imply that you're a Packerbacker. That's an insult I don't throw around lightly. ;-)
Don't worry, I didn't think you were. Actually the very first pro game I ever saw was a Christmas eve playoff game in 1972 where Washington made pretty short work of the Pack. I don't remember all that much of it but my father claims that was because I was far more interested in going the souvenir and concession stands than watching the game. A few weeks later Washington provided the Dolphins the final victory of their 17-0 season.
Oh, and not that any one cares, but the title of this post is actually the nick name of the team that year since several season's of George Allen's "The future is now" theory left Washington with almost no draft picks and the oldest team in the league. I'm sure D will find theory about my allegiance in that.
Typical of a Jambo Conversation: Throw out some whacky proposal that is only meant to protect a fragile sense of nostalgia and then go off on a tangent when the proposal gets ripped. I think you should spend a little more time preparing for this Sunday's matchup against America's Worst Writer's Fantasy Football squad.
By , at
11:53 AM
