The Salary Cap:

As in most issues worth arguing, the salary cap in sports has its supporters and its doubters.

I prefer the NBA's method. A salary cap with designed loopholes. The ability to re-sign your players, spend more than the cap if you want to pay the price, and spend less than the cap to save for the future. I like options.

Football and Baseball are examples of the two extremes. Football has a strict cap and Baseball has no cap.

Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins of the NFL and George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees of the Major Leagues, have the same goal: win at any cost.

However, because of the cap, Snyder can only do so much. He can bring a Free Agent into Washington to a presidential welcome and pay millions in bonus money and a coaching staff; but when it comes to his team, he can only pay so much.

The Yankees, on the other hand, have a $109 million payroll as opposed to the Minnesota Twins $20 million. So which is better? Depends on who you ask.

If you love great teams in great games, baseball provides that every October. If you love 24 teams fighting for 12 playoff spots in the last two weeks of the season, football gives you that in late November.

I love the draft.

I love seeing teams find a gem in the 50th round in baseball and seeing a team gamble on a player and see him turn into an all-star.

I love seeing teams like the Oakland A's win because they draft well.

I love seeing teams lose because they didn't. It is one of the only ways a team on the bottom can rise to the top without a bigger payroll.

I like the NFL's salary cap and I like the NBA's salary cap.

They are not perfect but at least every team is in the same boat. In Baseball, you can spend every cent you have or none at all, and that huge gap is what hurts the game.


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