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Cooking the Books: How the NFL Got Caught Stealing $120 Million From its Own Players


It’s not cheating if you don’t get caught.

This seems to be the mantra of the NFL as word broke this week that the league was found to have been improperly miscategorizing millions of dollars worth of money in ticket revenue by creating an improper exemption. The NFL had tried to pull a fast one on the NFL Players Association by trying to exclude a certain amount money from the larger pool of money that determines the NFL salary cap. In fact, the NFL even invented a term for the money calling it “waived gate” revenue which they ended up categorizing as stadium credit which, in turn, allowed the league to pocket the money. However, arbiter Stephen Burbank ruled that this new category of funds was not supported by the agreed upon collective bargaining agreement between the league the the NFL Players Association and thus that money should have been included in the pool that determines the salary cap.

The NFL almost got away with it too, had it not been for the meddling NFL Players Association. The union ended up discovering the discrepancy during a routine audit and once it was discovered they filed for an arbitration ruling which was guaranteed under the collective bargaining agreement. That agreement was written in a way so that the league itself would be immune from any sort of penalty if there just so happened to be this kind of issue. In other words, the league had nothing to lose by trying to pull a fast on on the NFL Players Association. In fact, they had been miscatergorizing the money as far back as the 2013 season. Burbank’s ruling stated that the NFL was to pay back the money they owed as their sole “punishment” for the infraction.

Cooking the Books: How the NFL Got Caught Stealing $120 Million From its Own Players | Politicus Sports

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

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Greed is eternal.