On March 9th, 2012, the Washington Redskins
made a monumental move in an effort to get the franchise going in the
right direction. They took a huge homerun swing in an effort to guarantee
themselves one of the two top quarterback prospects in the 2012 NFL draft.
The redskins traded their 2012, 2013, 2014 first round draft picks, along with
their second round pick in the 2012 draft in exchange for the 2nd overall
pick in the 2012 draft. With the Indianapolis Colt’s showing favorable
interest in Stanford QB, Andrew Luck, it seems the Redskins will be selecting
Baylor QB, Robert Griffin III.
It’s a big risk any time you give up a single
first round pick or second round pick let alone three (I know they gave up 4
but they got one in return). None the less the fans were desperate for
such a move. After watching 17 games of Rex Grossman and John Beck, it
was time to make an aggressive move and the team did just that. The loss
of draft picks would hurt, but Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan made smart
personnel moves and decisions and the redskins had roughly $31 million in cap
space going into the 2012 off season. This would allow them not to suffer
too badly by sacrificing multiple first round picks, so this is an investment
for the future. Last season the defense was back to form and now this
season they’ll be getting a dynamic face of the franchise and getting him help
in free agency. CUE HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!!!!!!……this was March 9th.
On March 12th, with the NFL free agency period
set to begin the following day, March 13th, Commissioner Roger Goodell decided
that it was a good time to issue one of his more ridiculous inexplicable
penalties. The Washington Redskins were docked $36 million dollars from
their salary cap and have only two years in which they can try to satisfy the
penalty. Meaning if they decide to take a salary reduction of $18 million
in the 2012 NFL season and the other $18 in the 2013 NFL season they are
allowed to. The money that will be docked from the Redskins and the
Cowboys will be dispersed throughout rest of the league excluding Seattle and
Oakland who also had violations, but were not docked. STOP THE MUSIC!
HOLD THE PHONE! What?!?!?! How did this happen?
In 2010 the NFL and its players had a massive
labor dispute which resulted in the 2010 season having no salary cap.
Meaning there were no restrictions to how much teams decided to spend on their
players for that season. Instead of this creating a spending frenzy to
snatch up all the available players possible, only two teams took full
advantage of this freedom, the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys.
Reports are that the NFL’s commissioner’s office warned NFL teams several times
of abusing the uncapped year, but at the same time all NFL contracts are
approved or rejected by the NFL’s commission’s office.
Roger Goodell is a no nonsense guy and sure doesn't
mind being the bad guy when it comes to policing the league and enforcing NFL
policy, but this is ridiculous. This is equivalent to a mother telling her son
not to eat a cookie, then giving the kid the cookie and watch him eat it and
then the next day she gives him a spanking. Furthermore why do the other
NFL teams get the money being docked? And why wait until the day before
free agency to pass down the punishment? IT'S BEEN ALMOST 2 YEARS!
There are so many issues here. Apparently there's a cap on an
uncapped year, who knew? We learn something new every day.
Send me your thoughts, questions, comments concerns. I'M BACK!
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