Goodell: 2010 Likely Uncapped Season

Roger Goodell had a conference call with the media yesterday where he addressed a few different topics but the one that I think most NFL fans will take note of is that he said that the owners and the league are essentially preparing for no salary cap for next season. What that basically means is that the NFL will become like the MLB... there will essentially be 3-5 teams that will have owners that will hoard all the talent they can get and the 25+ other teams will just be farm clubs for those elite teams.

I am sure Daniel Snyder, Jerry Jones and Al Davis are just salivating over this news because they are the owners who are more than willing to break the bank in an attempt to win championships...whereas teams like my Chargers have owners that like to keep costs down and will likely step aside as any player with talent will migrate from their team to any team that is willing to give them a huge paycheck.

Many 'experts' also have commented that if next season goes uncapped, the players union would likely not agree to a salary cap anytime in the near future...which then means the NFL is totally ruined. Man would that suck...it would be exactly like MLB... each season you can look at the entire league and cross off over 70% of the teams as having no chance to even make the playoffs. Oh sure every season there is a 'Cinderella' story, but the bulk of the playoff teams are the same big market, big dollar teams and next season it will be the same... Yankees, Red Sox, Phils, Cards, Dodgers and Angels can already be penciled in as likely playoff contenders next season even if their team is totally revamped...why? Because they have proven they are willing to spend the money to insure that their team will be competitive ... teams with owners that are more frugile have absolutely no chance... Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati will never even get a sniff at the MLB playoffs...ever...with the management they have in place and with the current no-salary cap set-up that is in the MLB.

The NFL players may have a point that the teams they play for are worth billions of dollars and they simply want what the market is willing to pay them. But the NFL owners, as well as the players, need to realize that the reason the NFL has been so successful and the reason for the NFL's popularity is because it is has always been a competitive league. Eliminating the salary cap will most certainly destroy the 'even playing field' which has been one of the biggest factors in making the NFL so popular...

But like the NHL strike a few years ago it basically comes down to both sides fighting over a huge pile of money...more money than any normal person could even imagine and neither side is willing to give the other one more penny than they have too...

I personally don't want to see it happen, but I hope the owners lock-out the players, use scabs or whatever and force the union to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement that continues to retain a salary cap so the league as a whole remains competitive. If the 2010 season is indeed uncapped you will begin to see the very things that will destroy the NFL... teams dumping high price players to trim their payroll while the rich teams are more than happy to pay insane salaries to bolster their rosters. It will be bad...