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Davis and Elway Broncos' Bowlen must pay $22 millon in deferred salaries
Posted: Tuesday March 28, 2000 06:54 PM
DENVER (AP) -- Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen was reportedly ordered to write the NFL a $22 million check to cover deferred salaries for two players, with the league then paying the players over time. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue ordered Bowlen to cover $22 million out of $29 million in deferred salaries the team owed running back Terrell Davis and former quarterback John Elway. The Denver Post, quoting unidentified sources, reported Tuesday that the NFL will make periodic payments to the players from the money Bowlen paid last week. Bowlen said the team had the funds. "It was just a question of who should be holding the money," he said. A Broncos spokesman declined to comment Tuesday, and an NFL spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment. Tagliabue's decision resolved a nearly yearlong dispute over whether the Broncos could pay the deferred salaries whenever they wanted. League officials said they want to limit the debt that teams accumulate. Tagliabue ruled last week that 75 percent of nearly $30 million in deferred money in the contracts of Davis and Elway had to be funded immediately rather than at the players' demand, as the Broncos had maintained. Davis was to receive $9 million; Elway was to get the rest. NFL rules state that any player salary greater than $1 million that is deferred more than a year must be funded immediately. Bowlen apparently did not violate salary cap rules by delaying the payments. Bowlen said it will not affect the size of the signing bonus the team offers its No. 1 pick in the April 15-16 draft. "We knew that we could have to pay that money at any particular point in time, so we had it," Bowlen said. "It wasn't like we had to go out and get it." The Broncos' restructuring of Elway's contract had given the team short-term salary cap relief, but it added to the money the team owed him after he retired.
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