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notahomer wrote:

Hambone wrote: "Over the years"? Not sure what you're talking about there. The SMS as a formal, supposedly quantifiable entity with defined criteria and penalties, has been in effect for 1 season. In the past there were salary caps/guidelines/rough guesstimates, whatever you want to call them. People can say there were loopholes when in fact there weren't. To have loopholes you first have to have some semblance of rules or laws. Pre-SMS there was at best a ballpark salary guideline with no clear definition of what constituted "salary" and no defined penalty for exceeding the theoretical cap. For all intents the old system was like having a speed limit then sending cops out to catch speeders with no radar or other technology to tell how fast a car is going. ...

Yes, I know you are right, the current SMS has been in effect for only one year. All I was trying to say is I don't want the current SMS to head down the road towards the old system you outlined. I had to listen to other teams fans complain about how the Lions were flouting the rules and whaddya know, most teams were doing the same things. Football is certainly copycat on/off the field (it only makes sense to do things that work). I just don't see the point of having a SMS if teams are going to be able to avoid being penalized for breaking it.

We first have to give it a chance to work before we can critique it. It may take a couple of years to find out how effective it is. The beancounters will soon be crunching the numbers if they haven't started doing so already. It'll be one thing to see who/if anyone exceeds the cap and to what extent. If that happens presumably fines will be levied as per the SMS. To me that will only be the first part of the SMS impact. I'm curious to see how the different organizations react once the first disciplinary measures are meted out. When I say "react" I'm thinking in terms of will they alter the way they do business? Will some accept the fines as a cost of doing business like the Yankees and Red Sox in MLB? Will we see teams take a different approach to free-agency? Maybe once fines are doled out we could see significant and popular veterans waived if teams decided those fines are too rich for their operation. For fans it would be those reactions that will potentially have far more impact on their favourite teams than the actual fine itself.

Hambone wrote: We first have to give it a chance to work before we can critique it. ...

No arguement. I want to see this work because previous attempts you outlined didn't. Your analogy (IIRC) regarding cops without radar guns couldn't have summed it up better. I feel in a similar way about replay. Was it purrfect? No, not in my opinion but at least there is a starting point to go from. I like the concept of the new SMS so I am going to be watching how things shake out from whats happened this season and any tweaks for next season. There has been talk it needs to be changed to account for injuries so in a way others have already begun critiquing it. I really don't care what the rules are, I just want them to be the same for every team. I don't think teams should be handicapped because they followed the rules.