Are you for or against the salary cap?

Question

I think it is stupid. Look at all the teams forced to drop and trade players just to stay under the cap. Great teams fall apart overnight over money.

Answer 1

What you seem to be forgetting lilcurly is that that is exactly why the salary was created. While you my not like seeing some of your favorite players leave your favorite team, it is better for the league. The salary cap has effectively ended the ability for teams to have long dynasties (and apart from the Patriots, even short ones). Some will argue that this has made football worse, because we will no longer see the 70's Steelers, the 80's 49ers, or the 90's Cowboys and Bills. But I argue that it has made the league better. With the sacrifice of dynasties the salary cap has made it possible for almost any team to win almost any year (ex. Saints 2-14 last year, 10-6 this year...without the salary cap Brees would still be in SD) thus making the league much more exciting, and giving smaller market teams a chance for success. By forcing the talant to spread out through the league all the teams have become much more balanced and no team can have all the best players. It is because of this that I say the cap is good for football. I wish they would do the same for baseball.

Answer 2

I am for the salary cap. The good things about it are each team spends nearly the same amount for players. The good teams win because of having the best players for the money, the best coaching and the best front office to scout the talent. When a team is bad, the excuse that you were outspent by your competition should fall on deaf ears.
Each NFL team is on solid financial ground. The same cannot be said about the lower major league baseball teams from small markets. The NFL does not have any situations like the Royals, Pirates and Devil Rays in their league.
The only negative I see about the salary cap are players unable to finish their careers with the franchise they did so well for. It would be nice if an exception could be made for a player with 10+ years with the same team, have only a percentage of his salary count against the cap. Possibly you could have seen Rice stay with the 49'ers or Emmitt stay in Dallas instead of the meaningless stops at the end of their careers.
I don't think at that stage of their careers, that would have given a competitive advantage to either team. Who knows? Maybe that just opens up a can of worms and makes the system more complicated like the NBA's.
But, even before the cap, travesties occured. Unitas in San Diego, Namath with the Rams, or Franco in Seattle.

Answer 3

If there was no salary cap, you'd have what's going on in baseball. All the richer owners buying up all the talent from the younger ones and having to rely on an extended playoff in order to determine a champion. A World Series winner can get away with having a lesser paid team IF they get hot at just the right time. A wild card team could conceivably play 185-190 games to win! How crazy is that? With a salary cap, teams have to make do and spread the wealth so that no one portion of the market crowds the others out and it helps generate more interest across the league each year.

Answer 4

I'm for it. Keeps the players from demanding more then their worth, teams will still overpay but at their own peril, and it keeps teams from being like the Yankees. We don't need a team spending billions and sending player salaries too high for the league to function properly. Heck even baseball has the "soft" cap with the tax.

petunia look at it from the players side. They work everyday, through practices and such, not just game day. They have to keep in shape. They have to be GOOD ENOUGH, unlike your job the pool of players that is good enough is likely far more limited. The best "career" is still only going to last about 15 years, and the avg isn't that good. So the player is likely retired by about 35 or so. Not alot of football players are going to be playing much older then that except maybe a kicker. Now they have to go get another job. If they are intelligent with their money they are set. Now maybe they make more then their worth, but WE the fans pay them. People complain they make more then teachers or firefighters or police. Well taxpayers shouldn't have to pay those people as much as FANS pay athletes. If someone doesn't like what an athlete makes then don't watch that team play, and don't buy that team's stuff. If the team isn't make much money they will stop paying so much eventually.

Answer 5

Definitely for it.

You said "great teams fall apart overnight over money". But that's just what makes it great. No one team always has the advantage by always having all the money. Where a great team my fall apart overnight, a subpar team may get just what they need to have playoff potential for the next season in that span of time. It keeps the playing field as level as possible and when you have good owners/management that can manage that cap.....you can still have a great team.

The cap is what keeps parody in the NFL. It keeps one team from having all the money, getting all the big players. That's the problem with the MLB today, because you have a handful of teams who have all the money and end up woo-ing all of the talent their way (ex: Yankees). Without a cap that's what you would have and I certainly wouldn't want that for the NFL.

Answer 6

The salary cap is good thing is the NFL becuase it gives teams to become competitive quickly. It also requires that you top notch personnel people who are able to make smart decisions without ruining an organization financially. People say that the salary cap means their no more loyalty in the sport. Those people fail to realize that this is a business and in all businesses, the only loyalty left is to the bottom line.

Answer 7

This IS AMERICA.
Land of the free?
There’s NOTHING FREE in America.
THIS IS A CAPITALISTIC ECONOMIC STRUCTURE.
Even prostitutes, albeit an illegal profession, have the right to get as much profit as possible for the service they perform.
Instead of salary caps and paying someone for what they may possibly do, defer more of the money into incentive pay for what they ACTUALLY DO.
Wait until the draft and find how much the top draft choices will sign contracts to be paid and HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING YET in the pro ranks.
Set a base pay like in every other job with the potential to earn more.
You want loyalty?
Ya gotta PAY FOR IT.

Answer 8

I think every professional sport should have a salary cap that limits how much an individual can earn.

It takes away an athlete's love for the sport and exemplifies doing something for money...that isn't what sport and competition are about - that's prostitution.

Answer 9

I think caps would be better on things like gas prices and health care. Owners should be able to blow their money however they want. Then the richest would always win, the league would be boring, no one could afford to go to the games, everyone would stop watching and then the wide recievers would have no reason to hump the goal posts. And wouldn't THAT be a tragedy.

Answer 10

For it, or else you get what happens in baseball, the same teams spending the money to get the players they need in place. Granted spending the dollars doesn't ultimately win you a championship but it at least gives balance to the league.