Salary Cap

For months, NFL Players Association president Gene Upshaw has been hammered for agreeing to a collective-bargaining agreement that includes a salary cap until 1998. Football is the only professional sport that has a hard cap. The result - veterans losing their jobs, players forced to take last-minute salary reductions - has soured baseball, hockey and basketball players on agreeing to a similar system. Some NFL teams have tiptoed around the $34.6 million cap with some creative financing.

The NFL has swallowed the poison pill. When the league and the players association reached a new collective-bargaining agreement in 2006, a clause called for eliminating the salary cap in 2010. Both sides assumed an uncapped season would be so distasteful that a new contract would be finalized long before the cap disappeared. Even when the owners opted out of the CBA in 2008, little thought was given to an actual removal of the salary cap that generally has been beneficial for both owners and players.

It is hard to imagine the Eagles duplicating the things they accomplished in the off-season a year ago when, among other things, they signed Jevon Kearse, traded for Terrell Owens, and dealt a third-string quarterback for a high second-round draft pick. That said, they are still in position to bid for the game's best free agents, as well as retain their own free agents in the off-season. Despite paying $26 million in signing-bonus money to Kearse and Owens last off-season, the Eagles will still be about $16 million under the salary cap this year.

If you wondered how the Miami Heat could steal Juwan Howard, give Alonzo Mourning the second-biggest contract in NBA history, keep Tim Hardaway, acquire P.J. Brown and stay within the confines of the league's salary cap, you have company. The league office wondered, too. And so much for Pat Riley's summer to remember. In addition to losing Howard, the Heat have lost the fantasy of joining the NBA's elite next season. Commissioner David Stern is resolved to punish any team that blatantly violates the salary cap, in the belief that if one team gets away with it, others would try. That's why the penalty for the Heat was harsh and painful - Howard's seven-year, $100 million contract was voided, and he was allowed to return to the Washington Bullets for comparable money.

Gov. Kean yesterday ordered a state hiring freeze, capped state salaries and froze spending on other state expenses to ensure that New Jersey's budget stays in the black. His announcement came after Gov.-elect James J. Florio asked Kean to institute the freezes as part of what Florio termed a "comprehensive plan to control spending. " New Jersey's fiscal health has been failing in the last year. Kean said that the spending freezes and the planned introduction of a new state lottery game should pour $90 million into state coffers through the end of June.

Last season, Omid Namazi was an all-star as both a player and a coach for the Kixx. This year it seems that he won't be duplicating that feat and it isn't by choice. With the National Professional Soccer League shrinking to six teams and changing its name to the Major Indoor Soccer League, teams have a $280,000 cap on salaries for their 16-player rosters. Namazi's salary would put the Kixx well over the cap. Namazi said he is having discussions with the league in hope that the rule is changed.

Tommy Maddox, drafted as Denver's "quarterback of the future" in 1992 after his sophomore season at UCLA, is about to become an ex-Bronco. Coach Wade Phillips said yesterday that Maddox had declined to take a pay cut, and he will traded or released. Maddox is to earn $850,000 this year to back up John Elway, but because of the prorated signing bonus he got as a rookie, he counts for $1.2 million against the salary cap. In four preseason games this year, Maddox played well, completing 29 of 52 passes for 386 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

The NBA announced that the salary cap for the 1987-88 season will be $6,164,000 per team, an increase of 25 percent over last season. The increase from last year's cap will result in an average player salary of $510,000 for the upcoming year. To ensure that NBA players receive at least 53 percent of the league's revenues, teams will be required to spend a minimum of $5,434,000 on player salaries. Steve Lappas, 31, has been named a full-time assistant basketball coach at Villanova.

The players union claimed Wednesday that the NFL imposed a secret salary cap during the uncapped 2010 season that cost the players at least $1 billion. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, which oversees NFL labor matters. But the league says the union has no grounds for the action and is prohibited from filing it by the collective bargaining agreement. The complaint claims a "conspiracy" to set a $123 million salary cap for the 2010 season, when owners did not have the authority to do so. The Cowboys and Redskins have had their future salary caps lowered for overspending in 2010, Dallas by $10 million over two seasons, Washington by a whopping $36 million.

The 76ers, hamstrung by the NBA's salary cap in their attempts to sign draft choices and free agents, may find relief today when the league's player representatives vote on a controversial pre-pension plan. If 10 or more of the 27 team representatives, who are meeting in Chicago, vote to rescind the plan, the salary cap for the coming season will jump from $11.871 million to approximately $13.5 million. The pre-pension plan, under which roughly $44.5 million was earmarked for payment to current players after their retirement, was narrowly approved by a mail vote of the Players Association rank and file in June.