This will never happen in baseball

I wouldn't accuse someone of not thinking things through unless I felt, based on what other people bring to the table that a) it's an argument that's been made and discredited many times before and b) the examples used to bolster the argument seemed more legit.

I have never claimed to be an expert on how the NFL's finance work (nor that of baseball) so I'll leave that part out of my argument. But his example of the Edge not being a cap casualty is rather nonsensical to me.

 

Actually, he made the salient points there. James had a lot of wear on him, including a major knee injury. He was 28 years old, not young by NFL running back standards. Money is always a factor, but there was plenty of other reason to move on.

He loses me on Faulk, who I do think was a cap casualty. But I think the disagreement there is more a matter of interpretation than a lack of thought.

 

The mere fact that there is such a thing as a "cap casualty" tells you the NFL salary cap system is faulty.
The real farce, of course, is that players sign 6-year contracts and get cut two years later with nothing guaranteed.

 

It's called making hard financial choices, something some MLB teams never have to do but all NFL teams have to do.

 

Actually, it's called signing 10-year contracts that aren't worth the paper they're written on. The NFL way.

 

If that's the case, then why did the NFL franchise sign a player to a long term contract in the first place? If they knew that they were going to have to make a hard financial choice?

 

Nothing is guaranteed, except that multi-million dollar signing bonus, which comprises much of the worth of the contract.

 

Fixed.

 

The truth is, there are flaws in both systems.

Bottom line is, for the most part, the NFL has won its disputes with the players and MLB has lost.

And really, the players (or at least their agents) know full well that their contracts are not guaranteed. You're acting like it is a shock when they get cut loose.

 

He's not saying it's a shock when NFL players get cut, even with their "guaranteed" contracts. I believe he's saying that the NFL's system makes contracts invalid.

 

If both sides know that the deal isn't guaranteed and the player is liable to be cut before the deal runs out, it's not as unfair as he is making it out to be.

 

It's funny that the NFL calls those pieces of paper a "contract".