As the dust settles on the transition of the Commanders from Daniel Snyder to Josh Harris, there’s a potentially important item of unfinished business related to one of the key findings of the Mary Jo White report.
If, as White concluded, the Commanders under Snyder deliberately moved money from a pot that would be shared with the league to a bucket that would remain with the team, were the NFL’s players collectively shortchanged by this practice?
The easy and obvious answer would seem to be yes. As alleged, the Commanders shifted revenue from NFL games (requiring a contribution to the Visiting Team Share) to non-NFL FedEx Field events, such as concerts and college football games. That money apparently should have gone into the overall fund from which the salary cap is calculated.
While the numbers on a per-player basis might not be significant, it’s still a problem. White concluded that $11 million and possibly up to another $44 million were hidden from the sharing obligation. Applying the loose 50-50 split of revenues between management and labor, the players potentially lost anywhere from $5.5 million to $27.5 million that would have, in theory, been added to the global cap pool.
With 1,696 active-roster players, that’s roughly $3,200 to $16,200 per player.
PFT has requested comment on the subject from both the NFL and the NFL Players Association. Neither has responded.
At a time when the conduct potentially amounts to fraud that could support state or federal prosecutions, the victims here aren’t just the other oligarchs. The players apparently had their pockets picked as well.
Whether Snyder’s exit will be the end of the issue remains to be seen. If nothing else, the NFLPA should be asking for the league to direct a sizable chunk of Snyder’s $60 million fine to the 2024 salary cap calculation, or some other program that benefits players.
Here’s a thought. Why not use some of the $60 million as seed money for a league-wide pool to reward running backs for on-field production in 2023? Alas, that possibility probably makes too much sense to ever be taken seriously by the powers-that-be.
