NFL Salary Cap - even the experts can bungle it

One of the least understood aspects of professional football is the salary cap. It can be very confusing to the typical fan and even some journalists don't have a firm grasp of its intracies. Still, it was more than a little bit surprising that Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King would bungle an analysis of it. What was especially ironic is that King noted the "massive misconceptions about the way the process, and the cap itself, works" as a preface to then misconcieving it himself.

The subject of this error was New Orleans Saints' WR Joe Horn's contract. King earlier had speculated that the Horn might be cut for his off the field headaches, but was subsequently informed by the Saints' front office that Horn was definitely staying (this eyar) in large measure because of Horn's cap friendly contract.

King notes that Horn got a $5.1 million signing bonus in 2003 as part of a 3-year deal. His base salary for 2004 is $700,000 which King reports as the cap cost to the Saints. Problem is that signing bonuses are pro-rated over the duration of the contract meaning that Horn might be getting $700,000 in his paycheck this year, but his cap cost is $2.4 million ($5.1 million divided by 3 (years on the contract) plus the $700,000 in base salary for 2004).

Sure it's enough to make your head spin, but how the salary cap is calculated and managed by teams is the key to success in today's NFL. It's part of the reason why the Eagles have been to 3 straight NFC championship games and one of the raison d'etres of this blog - to comment and correct the inaccuracies so often published by the "experts" on the intracies of the game. I may not be an expert on the X's and O's, but I do understand the salary cap.

To see King's mistake, go to http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/peter_king/06/07/king.mmqb/index.html