Lost in all the hand-wringing and tooth-gnashing regarding the latest knee injury suffered by Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III was an interesting comment from coach Mike Shanahan regarding $36 million in cap penalties that have hampered the 2012 and 2013 Redskins.
Asked during a lengthy end-of-season press conference whether the Redskins are still challenging the sanctions arising from treating the uncapped year of 2010 too literally, Shanahan said this: “Well, I can’t answer that at this time so that means we’re still involved in it. Yes, we’re still involved in it. When I can speak about it, I will speak. But at this time, I can’t. I think that answers your question.”
It does, but it really doesn’t. The Redskins and the Cowboys tried within the confines of the labor deal to challenge the penalties not long after they were imposed, but to no avail. Thereafter, the teams did some huffing and puffing about pursuing legal action, but nothing ever came of it.
Shanahan’s comments strongly imply that the Redskins are doing something to challenge the penalties. It’s just not clear what they’re doing, and in turn there’s no way of assessing whether it will work.
Given the magnitude of the cap penalties, it makes sense to try. The cap won’t be going up much over $120.6 million per team. For the Redskins, that’s nearly 15 percent gone in 2012, and another 15 percent unavailable in 2013.