The 78th NFL season got its identity on Nov. 16, in a domed
stadium in the middle of Indiana, where the 0-10 Colts met the
Super Bowl champion Packers, who had won five straight games.
The final score: Indianapolis 41, Green Bay 38.
The Oilers were making a run for the playoffs when they traveled
to Cincinnati to meet the going-nowhere Bengals on Dec. 4.
Midway through the second quarter the Bengals led 28-0 en route
to a 41-14 win. The Dolphins could have clinched a playoff spot
with a victory at Indianapolis on Dec. 14. They lost 41-0. The
Saints won six games, the Falcons seven, the Jets nine, the Bucs
10. Is the earth still on its axis?
"No longer will San Francisco's third string be better than most
teams' first unit," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said in early
December. "It's impossible. The [salary] cap has caught up to
everybody." Shanahan said this just before his team went from
dominant to defenseless, surrendering 69 points in consecutive
losses at Pittsburgh and San Francisco.
Now we hear that owners have begun discussions on a bylaw that
would create even greater parity by keeping teams from
circumventing the cap. The proposal would limit the total a team
could commit in salaries and signing bonuses in any one year to
115% of the cap. For cap purposes, the plan would allow for the
continued spreading of a signing bonus over the life of a
player's contract, but it would prevent an owner from doing what
the Cowboys' Jerry Jones did in 1995, when, with a $37 million
cap, he paid out $80 million in salaries and signing bonuses. If
the '98 salary cap is, say, $47 million, an owner wouldn't be
able to spend more than $54 million. The Cowboys and other
free-wheeling clubs would have to be more judicious with their
spending.
Which leads us back to the Packers-Colts game. Green Bay
defensive end Reggie White missed some of the game and defensive
tackle Gilbert Brown missed most of it with injuries. They were
replaced by Darius Holland and Bob Kuberski, respectively. "No
matter what you say about your backups, it isn't the same,"
Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre says. "The quality of player
drops off when you lose a Reggie or a Gilbert. [That's what the
cap is doing] to all of us."
Issue date: December 29, 1997
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