[discostu]

That's the point of the draft. The cap is to keep free agency sane, you're a hockey fan you've seen the havoc unchecked free agency can inflict on a league (Rangers salary is more than the NFL salary cap, 8 Dallas Stars making more than Troy Aikman ever did, it's insanity over there). The cap still needs to be tweaked to allow loyalty (although the franchise tag helps a lot) but the other sports show that it's not inherrently a bad idea.

[dmzTahoe]

You're right...the cap works. Lack of it is a disastorous (see hockey)
Because of the cap, Football is sound finanically (that and a good product). Each team gets about $80Million from TV revenue, which covers payrolls of the teams. In hockey, each team gets $4Million from a soon to be lowered TV deal, not enough to cover the salary of one premier player.

[Alberta's Child]

Check out my idea in Post #240. I have no problem with a salary cap (in fact, I'd love to see one in the NHL) -- but I have a real problem with how such a cap is implemented. My interest in the NFL declined considerably once it got to the point where half the players on a roster one year would not even be around for the following training camp. What kind of idiocy is that?

The NFL is paying the price for its disgraceful approach to the game of football. In any other sports league, a player who signs a five-year, $10 million contract can expect to see a total of $10 million in his bank account by the end of Year 5. In the NFL, though, his team has the option of basically terminating his contract at will after a certain period of time (if they are willing to accept a portion of the salary against their cap). What a joke.

[Alberta's Child]

That's the point of the draft.

And that's part of the problem. There's no way in hell a 1-15 team would be able to "draft" its way to a Super Bowl in two years. But the way the salary cap rules are set up, they have to try. If you draft a player today, he had better be able to perform for you right away with almost no learning curve -- because by the time he's been around for three years you may not be able to fit him in under your salary cap. That's another reason why the quality of play in the NFL is so bad -- because you've got young players starting today who would have been learning the ropes for a couple of years as a reserve in the pre-cap days.