If you haven't already heard, there's a very real possibility that the NFL may not have a salary cap by the 2011 season. Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones believes there is a good chance ownership will opt out of the current labor agreement with the NFL Players Association by the November 2008 deadline - which includes the salary cap.
Jones has not not give the Cowboys' opinion of the deal. But several owners, such as Denver's Pat Bowlen and New England's Robert Kraft, have expressed dissatisfaction.
Twenty-four of 32 votes would be needed to keep the collective bargaining agreement in place, and right now that doesn't seem like it's going to happen.
So we could have an NFL without a salary cap. I'm not sure whether to be excited or extremely worried. The NFL has an interesting revenue sharing model where it fairly evenly parcels out money the NFL generates to every team along with the cap. That's why a team like the Cincinnati Bengals can theoretically compete with the New York Giants and New York Jets - who have obvious major advantages.
However, if you suddenly let teams bid at will - some of which are unquestionably more wealthy than others - then the Bengals (along with a number of other teams) might literally never be relevant again.
Of course, that's only one thought. Many people would point to baseball and say that not having a salary cap doesn't harm the game. The Twins and A's have proved multiple times that you don't need a huge payroll to compete.
But they also haven't won a World Series any time recently.
Considering how wealthy some NFL owners are, I could easily see a guy like Jerry Jones assembling some kind of Pro Bowl squad. He's supposedly already trying to do that right now by trying to acquire Randy Moss.
I think the truth is, there's no way of knowing exactly what will happen. We'd likely see several teams who spend like the Yankees and Red Sox, and also several teams who spend frugally and draft wisely like the Twins and A's.
But for all that, we're probably even more likely to see certain teams become totally irrelevant - like say, the Saints, who play in a small market and can't generate anywhere near the extra revenue a team like the Giants could.
Regardless, it'll be real interesting to see what happens if the salary cap falls.
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