NFL cap pact

The NFL has been saved from itself, as owners and player reps have hammered out a collective bargaining agreement extension through 2011.
The league is indeed going to have a salary cap next year, and for the ensuing five years.
In a purely selfish vein, I have to say "darn."
If the NFL and its players association had held out for just a few more days, we would have reached a critical-mass breakdown. That would have meant a drastically scaled-back cap for this season and no cap for 2007.
As it stands, the owners gave a ton of ground at the negotiating table (reportedly about $1 billion) to ensure that there would be a salary cap. NFL owners know the struggle small-market baseball teams face against their big-market competition, and did not want the same for football. I can't blame them.
But this is one situation where it could have benefitted Cleveland not to have a salary cap. While the financially-limited Indians are always fighting an uphill battle against the gold-ringed Mafia dons from New York and Boston, the Browns are a big-market team in the NFL.
Sure, TV revenue is split 32 ways even in the NFL, so don't even think in terms of that. What the Browns are sitting on is billions from owner Randy Lerner and a fan base that sells out every home game and keeps the merchandising revenue flowing, regardless of how bad the product on the field is.
In short, much like the Yankees, money shouldn't be much of an issue for the Browns, who still have a lot of clout in the league despite having only one winning season since 1999.
But the Browns won't be able to exercise all of their money muscle with a salary cap in place. And for the good of the league, I'm OK with that.
The Browns will still have over $20 million to spend in free agency this spring, and in the coming years, the cap will probably balloon over $100 million.
It's not a perfect situation for some of the league's small-market teams, as demonstrated by the lower-revenue Bengals and Bills, the only two teams to vote against the extended collective bargaining agreement. But without any type of cap, the NFL would go down the road of baseball, and the Packers wouldn't be able to survive in a market like Green Bay.
I don't think anyone wants to see that. Even in Chicago.