A very bad sign for NFL players

It was not that long ago when Joshua Cribbs vowed that he would never play for the Cleveland Browns again. Now, a short time later news is leaking out of Cleveland that the team and player are working on a new contract and it seems like it will get done. This contract will essentially replace the three years left on Cribbs’ current deal and may keep the star player in orange and brown for an extended period of time.

While some of the players in Cleveland have changed, it seems very likely that someone got into Cribbs’ ear and told him this year might not be the best year to holdout and force a trade. It may not be the best year to be on the market, and all in all it would be better to stay with the Browns and work towards a new deal. Don’t like the sound of that, well you better get use to it.

I have to say this over and over again because it does not seem that anyone is listening. Without a Salary Cap there is no Salary Floor. That means team will no longer have to spend a 100 million dollars on payroll. They could cut their rosters to the bone and field teams for 30 million dollars just like the teams in Major League Baseball do. Right now I am willing to bet their are more Florida Marlin type NFL owners than their are George Steinbrenner.

I would expect NFL salaries to drop across the board in 2010, the players union is crazy if they think all of this will lead to more spending on NFL players. Forget about the collusion charge as well cause while there may be no salary cap or floor every NFL team will have a budget, because they are a business after all, and that budget will be far less what the salary floor would have been had the union figured all of this out already.

Related Links:

• Cleveland Browns news and notes
• The Business of the NFL
• NFL Complete.com