Leaked report claims raise in players salary cap in next two years-NFL News
A leaked report has hinted at the possibility of a significant increase in the players’ salary cap in next couple of years.
As the report remains unconfirmed, an exact figure of the increase has not been projected or speculated.
Some sections of media have claimed that the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) has told the teams and players in the report that they should expect a raise in the salary cap.
Current salary cap stays at $120.6 million a year and some of the teams are finding it difficult to maintain their players’ salaries expense with the defined budget line.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, for example, have recently parted ways with some of its veteran players, against their wishes to bring down the salaries expense.
Now the teams such as Steelers hope that the issue will be resolved over the period of the next two years provided that, as claimed by the report, the league office comes out with significant amount of increase in the players’ annual payout.
Some of the teams are said to be more ambitious and foresee the change coming in the stipulated time than others.
New England Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft, leads the list of the pessimists. He does not see an increase in the players’ salaries head in near future.
Kraft said:
"I don't really see that happening. I think there's going to be a smooth growth. I don't think what happened in '06 will happen in the future here because if you understand the labour agreement in the long-term part of this, there will be a smooth growth.
And anyone who assumes huge jumps, I hope they're in our division."
Patriots’ owner was on the committee that negotiated and reached the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the league office last year.
NFL office set the amount of $120.6 million for the salary cap in 2012, increasing slightly over the $120 million of a year earlier.
Some of the teams such as Steelers are more than $20 million above the cap and have introduced rash cleansing of squads to bring it down to within the cap level.
With the possibility of a substantial increase in the cap, may be somewhere around $140 to $150 million, the problem such as Steelers’ will be resolved. The teams will have more financial room to create depth in their squads.
However, as Kraft expects, a gradual upward revision of the cap will leave the issue as it is.
No one from the NFL office has commented on the reports claiming the raise, and until an official confirmation comes from NFL and NFLPA offices, all the developments around it remain speculative.
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