Sharrif Floyd filed a grievance last September against the Minnesota Vikings, and is still waiting for a settlement, according to Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Floyd was placed on the non-football injury list at the beginning of the season by the Vikings as a result of nerve damage in his thigh, which allows the team to avoid paying Floyd entirely. The defensive tackle did end up receiving $2 million from the Vikings as a base salary for the year, but filed in order to receive the full $6.8 million he feels is due.
In September of 2016, Floyd underwent a routine arthroscopic surgery to repair meniscus damage but complications during the surgery damaged a nerve that prevented his quadriceps muscle from firing.
The issue behind Floyd’s grievance is that he feels that his injury should not have been classified as a “non-football injury” presumably because the injury he sustained to require surgery in the first place was football-related.
In addition to the $2 million base salary counting against the Vikings 2017 cap, 40 percent of the grievance amount counts against the cap, per Goessling — which means a cap hit of $3.9 million for the 2017 season. If the grievance is resolved before March 14 in Floyd’s favor, then the entire amount of the grievance would be charged to the 2017 cap, bringing the total to $6.8 million.
But if the grievance is resolved after March 14, the beginning of the 2018 league year, then a favorable ruling for Floyd’s salary would charge the remaining 60 percent against the Vikings cap for the 2018 season, which would be another $2.9 million to account for.
If the grievance is resolved in the Vikings’ favor for the full salary after March 14, then they will receive a $1.9 million salary cap credit for the 2018 season. Any partial resolution will debit or credit the difference in salary cap credit — if the NFL rules that the Vikings owe Floyd 50 percent of his 2016 salary, for example, then the Vikings will receive a $0.5 million cap credit because the $3.9 million charge they carried in 2017 was $0.5 million more than the $3.4 million that would be ruled in that scenario.
Last we heard, the Vikings were not optimistic about Floyd returning to football in any capacity, which means his promising career was cut short by what seems to be a medical mistake.
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