The Cowboys thought they were smarter than the rest of the NFL. Now they're paying the price.
According to multiple media reports, the Cowboys will be fined $10 million in salary cap space for getting too creative during the so-called uncapped 2010 season.
At issue is receiver Miles Austin's big contract he signed after his breakout 2009 season. The website spotrac.com, which tracks sports contracts, reports Austin was paid a whopping $17 million in base salary in 2010, the uncapped year.
In 2011, the base salary shrank to $685,000 with a $1.57 million share of his signing bonus.
Stashing $17 million into one year of a seven-year, $57 million dollar contract apparently is a no-no. Even though the 2010 season was a, wink-wink, uncapped year.
Apparently, there was something of a gentleman's agreement among NFL owners to not take full advantage of the, nudge-nudge, uncapped year, a byproduct of the labor strife that led to the lockout and a new collective bargaining agreement.
That's why teams didn't go crazy and start signing players to whopper deals in 2010. Although it officially was an uncapped year, it wasn't really.
Well, it looks like one team did go a little crazy. The Washington Redskins got popped for a $36 million cap penalty, sources told The Associated Press.
The NFL released a statement saying that a small number of teams "created an unacceptable risk to future competitive balance" during the uncapped season and would have their salary caps adjusted for it.
This prompts a number of questions, many of them pointed at Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones. How could Cowboys management not know what "uncapped" really meant? Thirty other teams didn't break the rules.
Or were there really any rules? Are the Cowboys and Redskins being punished for following the letter of the law? Is everyone else just angry because they weren't smart enough to do the same?
The Cowboys can't be happy about it. They released a short statement through club PR man Rich Dalrymple:
"The Dallas Cowboys were in compliance with all league salary cap rules during the uncapped year. We look forward to the start of the free agency period where our commitment to improving our team remains unchanged."
The terseness of the statement says it all. The Cowboys say they followed the rules, period.
Don't look for the Cowboys to bicker any more about it. Oz has spoken.
As for the impact of the $10 million hit, it can be spread over two seasons. The Cowboys were expected to have $16-18 million in cap room to sign free agents, and they can still get there by makings some cuts and re-working some more contracts.
They probably won't be making a bid for Mario Williams now, but they can still keep Laurent Robinson if they want.
Ultimately, the cap penalty is the equivalent of a bad free-agent signing or an unwise extension. Goodness knows the Cowboys have dealt with those before.
That's not a harsh penalty for breaking the rules. The bigger issue is, what were the rules and why didn't the Cowboys know them? Only Jerry Jones can answer that.
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
