I Love truly Vilma, But.......

mutineer10 · 05-27-2012, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by FinSaint

My point back then was that the best scenario for the Saints financially would be for Vilma to get suspended for an entire season while remaining under contract, because it would in effect free up more cap space than cutting him would've.

Yeah, that's what had me puzzled. If Vilma's lawsuit fails & the suspension holds, does his contract count against the cap number? It's my understanding the suspension is without pay, so I can't see why it should.

Danno · 05-27-2012, 09:20 AM

Originally Posted by mutineer10

Yeah, that's what had me puzzled. If Vilma's lawsuit fails & the suspension holds, does his contract count against the cap number? It's my understanding the suspension is without pay, so I can't see why it should.

The bonus portions do, the weekly salary doesn't.

FinSaint · 05-27-2012, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by mutineer10

Yeah, that's what had me puzzled. If Vilma's lawsuit fails & the suspension holds, does his contract count against the cap number? It's my understanding the suspension is without pay, so I can't see why it should.

I read up on this when the possibility of suspensions was initially mentioned and the current CBA states that like Danno said already, the base salary of a player suspended (due to a football related issue) doesn't count toward the overall salary cap, but the various bonuses of a suspended player do.

And in the case of someone like Smith, his base salary is divided into 16 (I don't know why not into 17 as there are 17 weeks in the regular season, doesn't he get payed for the bye week?) to get the base salary reduction for a single game - times 4 in the case of Smith. And this is where his re-negotiated contract really hurts the Saints financially, because his base salary now is something like 800K for the 2012 season, as most of his salary was converted into a signing bonus.

And in the case of someone like Vilma, because he'll be suspended because of a football related issue and not something he did in his civilian life (i.e. Michael Vick), the suspended year will count towards his overall contract, which it wouldn't in the other case. The franchise is ultimately responsible for football related issues, and that is why they are also "punished" by losing a contract year with the said player - while that may be a blessing in disguise in some situations.

While the suspension may be "without pay" it doesn't mean that his contract is out of the books. It simply means that the player loses his base salary (or some of it) as part of the punishment, but as bonuses are usually guaranteed (as is always with signing bonuses since those have already landed on the player's bank account), those will still count towards the salary cap even if the player is suspended "without pay."

05-27-2012, 08:23 AM	#1
mutineer10 Site Donor Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Baton Rouge, LA Posts: 1,739	Originally Posted by FinSaint My point back then was that the best scenario for the Saints financially would be for Vilma to get suspended for an entire season while remaining under contract, because it would in effect free up more cap space than cutting him would've. Yeah, that's what had me puzzled. If Vilma's lawsuit fails & the suspension holds, does his contract count against the cap number? It's my understanding the suspension is without pay, so I can't see why it should.

05-27-2012, 09:20 AM	#2
Danno Truth Addict Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Spanish Fort, AL (via NO and B/R) Posts: 24,758	Originally Posted by mutineer10 Yeah, that's what had me puzzled. If Vilma's lawsuit fails & the suspension holds, does his contract count against the cap number? It's my understanding the suspension is without pay, so I can't see why it should. The bonus portions do, the weekly salary doesn't. FinSaint likes this.

05-27-2012, 10:14 AM	#3
FinSaint Site Donor 2015 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Finland... formerly Southern Virginia Posts: 4,963	Originally Posted by mutineer10 Yeah, that's what had me puzzled. If Vilma's lawsuit fails & the suspension holds, does his contract count against the cap number? It's my understanding the suspension is without pay, so I can't see why it should. I read up on this when the possibility of suspensions was initially mentioned and the current CBA states that like Danno said already, the base salary of a player suspended (due to a football related issue) doesn't count toward the overall salary cap, but the various bonuses of a suspended player do. And in the case of someone like Smith, his base salary is divided into 16 (I don't know why not into 17 as there are 17 weeks in the regular season, doesn't he get payed for the bye week?) to get the base salary reduction for a single game - times 4 in the case of Smith. And this is where his re-negotiated contract really hurts the Saints financially, because his base salary now is something like 800K for the 2012 season, as most of his salary was converted into a signing bonus. And in the case of someone like Vilma, because he'll be suspended because of a football related issue and not something he did in his civilian life (i.e. Michael Vick), the suspended year will count towards his overall contract, which it wouldn't in the other case. The franchise is ultimately responsible for football related issues, and that is why they are also "punished" by losing a contract year with the said player - while that may be a blessing in disguise in some situations. While the suspension may be "without pay" it doesn't mean that his contract is out of the books. It simply means that the player loses his base salary (or some of it) as part of the punishment, but as bonuses are usually guaranteed (as is always with signing bonuses since those have already landed on the player's bank account), those will still count towards the salary cap even if the player is suspended "without pay."
	"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno

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