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JASON LA CANFORA
Cowboys, Redskins file joint grievance against NFL

By Jason La Canfora |
Published: March 25th, 2012 | Tags: Dallas Cowboys, Salary cap, Washington Redskins

The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins have formally objected to the salary cap penalties they faced.

It is called a system arbitration case (Article 15 of the CBA). It will be heard by Professor Stephen Burbank of the University of Pennsylvania, according to the league.

On Friday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said that his team was planning to take action against the NFL after it docked the Cowboys $10 million in salary-cap space for manipulating contracts in the 2011 uncapped year.

The Washington Redskins lost $36 million for similar infractions. Both teams’ lost cap space can be spread through the next two seasons.

Jones indicated that he reached out to his longtime NFC East rivals about fighting the league’s ruling.

The NFL took away millions in salary cap space from both teams after the two NFC East clubs pushed spending into the uncapped year to save money under the cap in 2011 and ’12.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kilmer72 wrote:This is nice. I am all for it. I just hope we do not see an increase in penalty flags as retaliation.

Deadskins wrote:How did mine get added to the Who stays - Who goes thread?

John Mara, the owner of the New York Giants and the chairman of the NFL Management Committee, which imposed $46 million worth of salary-cap penalties on the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys for the way those teams structured contracts during the uncapped 2010 season, just walked through the lobby of The Breakers here on the day before the start of the NFL's annual meetings. Let's just say he's not having second thoughts.

"I thought the penalties imposed were proper," Mara said. "What they did was in violation of the spirit of the salary cap. They attempted to take advantage of a one-year loophole, and quite frankly, I think they're lucky they didn't lose draft picks."

The Redskins and Cowboys have filed a grievance against the NFL and the NFLPA over the matter, and Mara said he was aware of that. But he does not appear to be worried that the Redskins and Cowboys will prevail. While there was no salary cap in 2010 and no rule prohibited teams from spending whatever they wanted to spend that year, Mara said the issue "came up several times in our meetings," and that there was an agreement not to engage in the kind of behavior in which the Redskins and Cowboys behaved by dumping big cap hits into the uncapped year in order to save against the cap in future seasons.

"We all knew the cap would come back," Mara said. "We were not going to enter into any agreement with the NFLPA if there was not a salary cap in it."

Outside of the NFL, which has its own agreed-upon and collectively bargained rules regarding collusion, what the league did in 2010 would be regarded as collusive behavior -- all of he business owners in an industry conspiring and agreeing to limit the earnings of the workers in that industry. But Mara laughed off the word "collusion" when it was brought up this afternoon.

"This has nothing to do with collusion," he said. "It has to do with teams attempting to gain a competitive advantage through a loophole in the system. They attempted to take advantage of it knowing full well there would be consequences. There was nothing wrong with the individual contracts, but when you look at the overall scope of what they did, they were trying to take advantage and they were told not to."

This is clearly not the end of this argument. In fact, Jerry Jones checked into the hotel while Mara was talking to us, so I'm headed back to the lobby now to see if he's around and has anything to say about this. My guess is he'll disagree with what Mara thinks. Just a hunch.

1niksder wrote:John Mara: Redskins, Cowboys got off 'lucky'

John Mara, the owner of the New York Giants and the chairman of the NFL Management Committee, which imposed $46 million worth of salary-cap penalties on the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys for the way those teams structured contracts during the uncapped 2010 season, just walked through the lobby of The Breakers here on the day before the start of the NFL's annual meetings. Let's just say he's not having second thoughts.

"I thought the penalties imposed were proper," Mara said. "What they did was in violation of the spirit of the salary cap. They attempted to take advantage of a one-year loophole, and quite frankly, I think they're lucky they didn't lose draft picks."

The Redskins and Cowboys have filed a grievance against the NFL and the NFLPA over the matter, and Mara said he was aware of that. But he does not appear to be worried that the Redskins and Cowboys will prevail. While there was no salary cap in 2010 and no rule prohibited teams from spending whatever they wanted to spend that year, Mara said the issue "came up several times in our meetings," and that there was an agreement not to engage in the kind of behavior in which the Redskins and Cowboys behaved by dumping big cap hits into the uncapped year in order to save against the cap in future seasons.

"We all knew the cap would come back," Mara said. "We were not going to enter into any agreement with the NFLPA if there was not a salary cap in it."

Outside of the NFL, which has its own agreed-upon and collectively bargained rules regarding collusion, what the league did in 2010 would be regarded as collusive behavior -- all of he business owners in an industry conspiring and agreeing to limit the earnings of the workers in that industry. But Mara laughed off the word "collusion" when it was brought up this afternoon.

"This has nothing to do with collusion," he said. "It has to do with teams attempting to gain a competitive advantage through a loophole in the system. They attempted to take advantage of it knowing full well there would be consequences. There was nothing wrong with the individual contracts, but when you look at the overall scope of what they did, they were trying to take advantage and they were told not to."

This is clearly not the end of this argument. In fact, Jerry Jones checked into the hotel while Mara was talking to us, so I'm headed back to the lobby now to see if he's around and has anything to say about this. My guess is he'll disagree with what Mara thinks. Just a hunch.

ferryrich wrote:loophole in the system? there was no system for a loophole to be in.

jmooney wrote:I dont know what the league will do to the Cowpies but, I'll bet they move full steam ahead with an "investigation" on the bounty program here in Washington now.

Its becoming pretty obvious that Mara was the driving force behind the whole thing and he may just have the commish in his pocket.

I actually think I hate that guy worse than Jerry Jones . Mara is a greedy so and so and was one of the main players behind the lockout last year. I'd like to see someone investigate his A$$. No way he's clean!

jmooney wrote:I dont know what the league will do to the Cowpies but, I'll bet they move full steam ahead with an "investigation" on the bounty program here in Washington now.

Its becoming pretty obvious that Mara was the driving force behind the whole thing and he may just have the commish in his pocket.

I actually think I hate that guy worse than Jerry Jones . Mara is a greedy so and so and was one of the main players behind the lockout last year. I'd like to see someone investigate his A$$. No way he's clean!

jmooney wrote:I'm just concerned that now that Snyder and Jones have filed this grievance. Some "phantom" new evidence into bounties here in DC will be discovered and the investigation will re-open.

Nothing would surprise me at this point, thats all Im saying

Irn-Bru wrote:I want some justice now more than ever, with Mara doing that ridiculous posturing. He almost makes me hate the Giants just a little more than that team in TX . . . . almost.

jmooney wrote:Well, they have certainly moved in front of Philthy for the next 2 years. In my book anyway