Crunching Numbers: An Inside Look At The Salary Cap And Negotiating Player Contracts

by Jason Fitzgerald, Vijay Natarajan

The authoritative guide on the National Football League (NFL) salary cap and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Crunching Numbers: An Inside Look at the Salary Cap and Negotiating Player Contracts is the perfect book for any NFL fan to broaden their understanding of the rules and decision making processes general managers face each day, as they construct their team.


Crunching Numbers goes into great detail to explain how the money works. Key concepts from the NFL CBA such as signing bonuses, dead money, free agency, salary guarantees, franchise tags, termination pay, minimum salary benefit, bonus forfeitures, grievances, and many more will be looked at closely. By using practical case player examples to illustrate the concepts within the CBA, readers will learn how to calculate a player's salary cap number and the ways in which teams manipulate those numbers to work within the NFL rules. In addition, Crunching Numbers explores ways to benchmark contracts and the roles team contract negotiators play in today's NFL.


Whether you are a student with aspirations of working in an NFL front office, a sports agent, a sports writer or just an avid fan, Crunching Numbers will help you better understand the intricacies of the NFL's player's contracts, the salary cap, and salary cap management.


For more information, please visit www.CrunchingNumbersBook.com.


Praise for Crunching Numbers


"Crunching Numbers fills the void that has existed for years when it comes to understanding NFL contracts and the rules regarding the salary cap." - Paraag Marathe, Executive VP of Football Operations, San Francisco 49ers


"A must read for all who want to learn about NFL contracts and the salary cap." - Jason LaCanfora, CBS Sports


"I've been covering the NFL since the 90's and consider Jason and Vijay to be indispensable resources for all things relating to the salary cap. Their extensive knowledge of the CBA shines through in this collaboration." - Mike Sando, ESPN Senior Writer and Pro Football Hall of Fame Selector


"Crunching Numbers is a welcome addition to the sports management education literature. Fitzgerald and Natarajan's work provides and inside view far more credible than anecdotal commentaries, uncovering the accounting and strategy behind the NFL salary cap." - Dr. Kristi Sweeney, Assistant Professor, University of North Florida


About the Authors


Jason Fitzgerald is the founder of the website OverTheCap.com, which focuses on contract analytics and bench marking contracts. Jason is considered a salary cap expert and has been hired as a consultant by NFL teams and sports agencies to conduct contract analytic projects. His work has been cited by numerous print and digital media including Sports Illustrated, NFL.com, the New York Times, Boston Globe, and the Seattle Times to name a few. Jason has been a contributing writer for the Sporting News.


Vijay Natarajan works in the athlete representation field overseeing the day to day operations for the NFL clients of KLASS Sports, LLC. Vijay performs statistical analysis and focuses numerous studies on expected contract trends. He is an expert at sports collective bargaining agreements, salary cap analysis, and player contract negotiations. Vijay has also worked closely on NBA player contract negotiations and is well versed in NBA contract analytics.

Genres: Football, Sports

304 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2016

About the author

Jason Fitzgerald is a 2:39 marathoner, USATF-certified coach, and author of 101 Simple Ways to be a Better Runner.

His coaching website, Strength Running, helps over 200,000 runners a month train smarter and race faster.

Reviews

[Ian Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a few things. Jason Fitzgerald and Vijay Natarajan are financial guys. They have carefully worked through the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, and they also have access to a lot of contract information on players. Fitzgerald I believe is the founder and driving force behind the excellent website, "OverTheCap.com".

But it's a very technical, dry area. It's not that interesting. (And this is despite me being a heavy, hard-core football guy, who reads about 10 NFL books per year).

The writing isn't great. It reads like a textbook. Each chapter ends with a rudimentary conclusion, re-stating what they just went over in the previous 10 pages.

Each chapter begins with a quote, but very few of the quotes are colorful or meaningful. (Just because something was said by the capologist of the Lions doesn't mean that it's interesting.)

While these are numbers/finance guys, they're not strong football guys. For example, Cris Carter appears as "Chris" Carter and Branden Albert in some areas appears as "Brandon" Albert. If somebody really knows football, he wouldn't make a mistake on Cris Carter.

At one point, there's a rundown on the key financial guy for all 32 teams. There's a paragraph on each guy, and then there's a paragraph mentioning a technique that the guy used, and perhaps why. But none of those 32 writeups mentioned anything bad about anybody. There was never an opinion or why Team X doesn't handle its contracts as well (and why). Not enough critical stuff, in my opinion.

They'll walk you through how signing bonuses can be prorated and the different types of guarantees. They know the financial end of the NFL, and I appreciate the effort.

But not enough observations that land and score points. Wasn't interesting enough for me.