Five days after the NFL dropped a salary-cap bomb on the Redskins and the Cowboys, the teams could be retaliating with a bomb of their own.
A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that the Redskins and Cowboys could be going “nuclear” with the NFL as soon as Monday.
More specifically, the two teams are contemplating suing anyone and everyone connected to the sudden removal of $46 million in total cap space over the next two years, based on the contention that their treatment of the term “uncapped year” too literally somehow created a competitive disadvantage. Even though no rules or policies were violated.
The teams will spend the weekend examining every possible option. “Who can I sue and how can I sued them?” will be the operative questions. (It’s unknown whether a “suance” is being considered.)
Adding to the teams’ frustration, we’re told, is that the deal to take away the cap money was brokered between NFLPA executive DeMaurice Smith and the NFL Management Council Executive Committee, without a full vote of NFLPA leadership or NFL ownership. The chairman of the CEC is Giants owner John Mara, whose team benefits directly from the removal of cap room from two of his chief division rivals.
It’s unknown whether the Redskins and Cowboys are bluffing in order to force a compromise, or whether they indeed truly intend to file suit. Reducing the allegations to writing necessarily will expose that the league was engaged in collusion in 2010, which could have all sorts of unintended consequences for the entire NFL, including the Redskins and the Cowboys.
And so the real question is whether the Redskins and Cowboys are angry/crazy enough to drop a grenade into a room they won’t be able to escape.
The answer very well could be yes.