Now, that was a significant, and reasoned argument.
It still boils down to one thing. Control of the owner's profligate spending.
If the Rangers, or any other club, were a major problem for the other owners, then deal with him/her in the "owner's club" like gentleman, and gentlewomen. Why penalize the players with an onerous salary cap just because the owners can't discipline their own clubmembers?
Also, of course, I apologize if my words came across as harsh or insulting. I'm obviously an advocate for the players, and not overly impressed with the current crop of owners or the commissioner. but, it was not my intent to let my passions be a burden to you.
It doesn't penalize the players, salary caps aren't onerous, the current NFL salary cap averages out to about 1.25 million dollars per player, that's not too shabby, and only part of the signing bonus and performance based insentives count against the cap. Everybody's salary has climbed very nicely under the cap, all it really does is keep one team from having a bunch of $8 million players but with 32 teams there's still plenty of room in the league for $8 million players. This system also gives teams a choice, they can load the team with flashy players that make hilight footage and put seats in chairs, or they can bargain hard and work for balance and go for the statue crap shoot; they can try to be Indianapolis or New England and it's all the owner's decision, personally I have no respect for the Indy choice I think if you're going to own a sports team you should be gunning for a championship. But I'll never have that kind of money so I guess my opinion doesn't count.
The NFL really isn't into dealing harshly with owners, not like the MLB has been lately, if they were Al Davis and Georgia Frontiere would be slipping with the fishes at least proverbially (and in Georgia's case maybe more so, 3 time widows need to be dealt with permanently, I bet Tagliabeau was scared out of his wits giving her a ring). And constantly punishing owners after the fact doesn't create balance now, and that was always Pete's goal, from the first day he took charge of the NFL before there even was an AFL he wanted an any given Sunday league, no powerhouses, even playing field, totally unpredictable. Pete had a vision and lived long enough to see most of it realized, maybe I'm just an old romantic but I dig Pete's vision, I like that most of the regular season and all of the post season is on broadcast TV not cable, I like that the Super Bowl has become a national holiday, I like how much NFL slang has entered into our language, and I love the fact that I have no freaking idea who'll be playing in Detroit in the deep of next winter.
I'm with you on owners, there's a solid dozen I think should be run out of town on the rail. But I think Paul's OK, I mean he's no Pete Rozelle but who is, I don't think any sport has ever been blessed with his like before and we're not likely to see another like him in our lifetime; and I like the fact that he's tried to stick with Pete's vision. My only real gripe with Paul is that Sunday Ticket is only on DirectTV, I don't think that's financially smart and I think it breaks some of Pete's vision.
Apology fully accepted and I'll apologize back, I'm not always the nicest guy in the world even when I don't mean to be rude and probably popped on you harder than I meant to.