Luv, the cap is simple.

The Chiefs, and every other team, basically have a set amount of money to spend on 53 players every year. I think it's about $110 million at the moment.

It increases every offseason to account for...inflation, or some bullshit.

It's done this way so the NFL doesn't become like major league baseball. Where the Yankees are the best team more often than not because they have the most money to spend on players.

This will be fun to think about then. My analytical mind LOVES numbers.

You are basically right with the exception that many of the teams have the money to spend but the owners just don't want to spend like old George.

It would be interesting to see how rich each of the owners might be and how much they actually invest of their own money. As far as investing their own money I'd bet that George is #1.

Alrighty, work is slowly nearing an end. A quick trip to Wally World, and you guys are mine <insert evil laugh here>!!

BTW luv, the team with one of the cheapest payrolls won the Super Bowl last year.

Okie dokie. Is there a chart of some sort that has players listed and how much they're making spread out over the time of their contract? Like ESPN or kcchiefs.com or something?

Well Fox Sports has a page that is supposedly the salaries for this year. Not sure how accurate it is:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/teamSal...tegoryId=67049

Failing that, NFLPA.org has a player search feature, not sure how accurate the numbers are:

http://www.nflpa.org/Resources/ActivePlayerSearch.aspx

Here is LJ's page, as you can see he's been paid peanuts:

Salary cap is something I'll have to research on my own, I think.

Any other need to knows?

Hey! Look! This thread seems to be helping more than just me. That makes me feel good.

Well, when a player signs a contract, it'll usually be reported as "7 years, $50 million dollars." That figure strokes their ego, but in reality they won't see all that money. The only portion that is guaranteed is their signing bonus.

So don't freak out when LJ signs an $80 million dollar deal sometime in the next few months. :)

Why won't they see it? And how is the signing bonus figured?

Because usually contracts are backloaded, with huge portions of the salary dumped at the end of the contract - if the player is old or declining, the team can just cut or trade him in order to avoid paying that money.

A good example is Eric Hicks, who was cut yesterday because he's being paid 4 million dollars to sit on his ass basically.

The signing bonus is just negotiated on and agreed upon by the player, his agent and the team.

$50 over 7 years comes out to $7.14 million per year. THey don't get paid each year?

They get paid by the week during the season I believe (i.e the term "game checks"). It is not always evened out. A player might get a few hundred thousand one year and a few million the next year.

A player will get cut because he is making too much money one season compared to the year before - unless he is worth that money. Kendrell Bell was asked to restructure his contract this year or the year before because he's basically a waste of skin.

He was also denied a $10 million roster bonus (money awarded for being on the roster at a certain date), because he sucked ass basically. That's just one of many incentives that might be built into a contract. The Chiefs may have put incentives in Trent Green's contract like "throw X number of touchdown passes and get paid this much."

Basic example, a team signs someone to a 5 year deal worth 30 million. In year one they make 2 million, year two 3 million, year three 5 million, year four 8 million, and year five 12 million. Teams backload the contract to make it seem that the players are making more.