Redskins, Cowboys could go “nuclear” over cap mess

[HoopheadVII]

A couple of relevant points that may or may not have been made yet:

1) The NFL's Constitution and bylaws outline the authority of the Executive Committee, the Commissioner, and they authorize the commissioner to create other committees reporting to the commissioner (including the Management Council Executive Committee). The authority of the commissioner is specifically defined (Art. VIII), and nowhere in there does the commissioner have the power to modify the salary cap. He does have the right to recommend other punishment to the Executive Committee, but punishment by the Executive Committee requires the affirmative vote of 3/4 of the clubs.

2) The discipline enacted relies on the clubs involved exhibiting "conduct detrimental to the welfare of the League." This should be interesting to prove given that the Commissioner had the ability to disapprove the relevant contracts at the time and didn't.

3) The CBA explicitly states (Art XIII, Sec. 1) that the salary cap will the same amount for each club.

4) The NFLPA agreed to not dispute the penalty because DeMaurice Smith was bribed with his job. He is up for re-election this month, and seeing the salary cap go down from the fixed amount last year would all but ensure he's not re-elected. The Salary Cap is calculated for a given year based on projected revenues - and the total cash spending requirement across all teams is adjusted later based on actual revenues. Since the League makes this projection, they threatened to lower the salary cap in 2012 if the NFLPA didn't accept the penalties on the 'Skins and Cowboys.