On Monday night, Florio pointed out a potential problem with Colts owner Jim Irsay offering his private plane to quarterback Andrew Luck to help facilitate meetings between Luck and his receivers until Luck is free to rejoin the Colts in June.
The issue had to do with the salary cap rules. Giving Luck the use of the plane would constitute providing him with something of value that would then have to fit under the cap and the rookie pool. The same would be true of plane tickets, bus tickets or anything else that would help Luck get to the same place as one of his receivers. Some of those options are a lot less pricey than the use of a private plane and it seems the Colts will have to explore those if they want to kick in for Luck’s travel expenses.
The league didn’t have a comment for Florio, but they have grounded Irsay’s plane. Chris Mortensen of ESPN and Mike Chappell of the Indianapolis Star both report that Luck will have to find a different way of working out with his teammates between now and the June 7th end of the Stanford semester.
The good news for Luck is that he has two receivers -- tight end Coby Fleener and wide receiver Griff Whalen -- with him in Palo Alto. Austin Collie lives in Sacramento, which isn’t too far away, but the restriction might limit how often Luck can work with Miami resident Reggie Wayne.