NFL

Tuesday is the day when NFL teams can place a franchise tag on their free agent of choice. The deadline for franchise tags is March 1st. To many, franchise tags seem as complicated and inaccessible as the NFL’s definition of what a “catch” is, but they’re actually pretty simple. Using a franchise tag guarantees a player will stay with a team for another season. This is useful when a team is unable to strike a deal with one of their star players before free agency begins. But it doesn’t come cheap. If a player has been stamped with the franchise tag, the team can either reach a long-term agreement with him by July 15th, or they’ll have to pay out the average of the top five salaries for that position in the league, maybe even more if the player was already one of the top earners. So if the Washington Redskins used the franchise tag on Quarterback Kirk Cousins, for instance, his salary for the 2016 season would be close to $20 million. That’s not too likely to happen though. Only eight quarterbacks have ever been tagged since the franchise tag began in 1993.

This year, the Denver Broncos are expected to use the franchise tag on Super Bowl MVP linebacker Von Miller. The Carolina Panthers will use the tag on cornerback Josh Norman if they can’t nail down a contract by March, and the Baltimore Ravens will do the same with with their star kicker Justin Tucker. Another likely candidate is Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin. Martin had a shockingly good season, coming in second in the league for rushing yards.

Since the league’s salary cap is expected to go up quite a bit this year, teams will have more money to pursue the star players they want. This is where franchise tags will come in handy. Last year, the Detroit Lions opted out of tagging Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh. As a result, the Miami Dolphins swooped in with a whopping $114 million six-year contract, and the Lions’ secondary hasn’t been quite the same since.

In other sports news, Peyton Manning was one of a number of athletes named in a lawsuit by female students at the University of Tennessee alleging that the school fostered a “hostile sexual environment.”Manning’s name was included in the lawsuit for his behavior in 1996 when he was the QB for the University of Tennessee. According to the lawsuit, Manning “placed his naked genitals in the face of a female trainer” while she was examining him. Manning refuted the trainer’s story and settled a lawsuit with her in 1997. The University of Tennessee has been named in multiple sexual assault incidents involving student athletes over the last few years. Expect this story (with or without Manning’s name) to continue to be in the news.