The Curse of a Salary Cap–Eating Quarterback

[TSFH Fan]

The penalty for skirting the cap is harsh. Not to mention the Federal tax liability and felony charges that could lead to jail time.

Remember the Redskins and Cowboys got huge fines, I think 36MIL and 10MIL of cap space for skirting the rules.

In the Redskins case that was about 25% of the total cap. And these were on contracts. Paying money under the table could really get an owner in serious trouble.

Brady salary talk?

I guess Patriots' payments and benefits to Brady's company, TB12, can be called "over the table" rather than under the table.

Yes, it's been posted about here a lot, but not recently. Tom Brady has a company called "TB12". It's a pseudo health/fitness company. It's main office is located on Patriots' property at Gillette Stadium.

The Patriots publically claim to rent the space to TB12 at the fair market rate, but have not disclosed the amount. Hypothetically, if the Patriots were freely willing to rent to TB12 at $1/year and if TB12 was freely willing to pay $1/year for rent, then, the fair market rate, by technical definition, would be $1/year. TB12 would be getting a financial benefit from not paying what its neighbors/comps pay in rent. This hypothetical financial benefit would, albeit indirectly, be a benefit from the Patriots to Brady.

The Patriots send players to TB12 for health services and pay for those services. To my knowledge, those payment amounts have not been disclosed. Those payments from the Patriots make their way to Brady, as owner of TB 12.

TB12 gets the free publicity/advertising value from being used by Patriots players and being located on the Patriots' premises. Brady as owner of TB12, gets the benefit from the free publicity/advertising.

The TB12 rental space was renovated and expanded for several million dollars. Do people think these were tenant paid improvements or improvements paid by the landlord?
https://dellbrookjks.com/projects/sports-and-entertainment/tb12-sports-therapy-center/

Yes the league knows all about the Patriots-TB12 business relationship and they're fine with it -- so "over the table", I guess. For more information, here's a good start: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/...ubious-past/C4zMzcPDgU62WMMg10qeBL/story.html

Oh, and for total speculation: Brady "wrote" a book. It became a NYT best seller. Assuming Brady got royalties/percentage off sales, anyone think Kraft bought a couple or a couple thousand copies? I mean how many Brady lovers actually read and then actually read books?

Full disclosure -- I'm not a Brady lover.

 

[Mackeyser]

The penalty for skirting the cap is harsh. Not to mention the Federal tax liability and felony charges that could lead to jail time.

Remember the Redskins and Cowboys got huge fines, I think 36MIL and 10MIL of cap space for skirting the rules.

In the Redskins case that was about 25% of the total cap. And these were on contracts. Paying money under the table could really get an owner in serious trouble.

The problem is that the NFL knows about the reduced rent at a prime property and does nothing. There’s nothing to discover. Kraft is doing it openly and the NFL seems fine with it.

 

[Raptorman]

See, now that is something entirely different than taking a "paycut" as you originally stated, and you are incorrect. He has passed up millions while signing his extensions. You can read the CBS article linked above to see just how much he has been paid compared to other QBs since 2013. He could have earned just as much as Brees or Manning, but he took less than he could have earned. That is exactly what a hometown discount is.

Not really. Brady has averaged $11 million per year over his career. Rodgers, $14.5, Rivers $13.4, P. Manning $13.7, Flacco, $13.3, Ryan, $16.1. So when did he take less money? You also have to remember he has been playing 5 years longer and those first two years were less($372,000) because he was a 6 round pick.