Quote Originally Posted by Frozen Tundra View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Patler View Post
- GB has been innovative in finding ways to use the cap conservatively. Others followed, and in some instances salary cap rules were changed because of it.
Is this one of the elements you're going to go into in greater detail a little later?
Probably not, so I'll discuss here.

- In the early years of the salary cap, unused salary cap was "lost". It did not roll over from year to year.

- In calculating salary cap allocations, performance bonuses paid at the conclusion of the season were categorized as either "likely to be earned" or "not likely to be earned". Statistical categories included as "likely to be earned" were defined for the various position groups.

- A "likely to be earned" bonus counted against the salary cap of the year in which it could be earned. A "not likely to be earned" bonus did not have to be accounted for until the salary cap of the following year.

- If a "likely to be earned" bonus was not, in fact, earned, since it had been counted against the salary cap of the year in which it could have been but wasn't earned, the team received a credit for the bonus amount in the salary cap of the following year.

With that in mind, GB and I believe the Eagles were the first to revise contracts for one or two players each year to include bonuses within the category of "likely to be earned", but for players who would not earn them. These revised contracts were signed in the last couple weeks of the seasons. For example, with two weeks left in the season, the backup QB, who had not yet played, would be given a revised contract including a bonus for games played or pass attempts which could not be earned in the games remaining. The bonus amount would be most of their remaining salary cap that year. The player usually received a small signing bonus for cooperating.

In this way, the salary cap was "used" that year, but since the player wouldn't actually earn the bonus, GB received a credit against the cap the following year. In effect, they rolled unused cap from one year to the next.

Surprisingly, other teams were slow to follow this practice. A few did, but not a lot of them for quite a few years. Gradually they did, and eventually the league gave in, and allowed rollover of unused cap without the sham bonuses. It went through some goofy variations to get where it is today.