NFL Wins Salary Cap Fight with Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins

An arbitrator has upheld the salary cap reductions the NFL placed on the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins for this and next season.

The Redskins lost $36 million over two years, and the Cowboys $10 million, for overloading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season despite league warnings.

The Cowboys and Redskins, who filed their grievances against the league and players' association, said in a joint statement they would “abide by the arbitrator's decision to dismiss.”

''The way you work around the salary cap is you kind of use the credit card to spend money that you won't be spending in the future,'' Dallas owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday at the owners meeting. ''So it caused us to do more credit card spending in the future.''

The $46 million in free cap space was distributed evenly to 29 other teams.