N.F.L. Penalizes Redskins and Cowboys on Salary Cap Free agency opens Tuesday, and two teams known for big spending have a lot less to spend. The Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys will each be docked millions of dollars in salary-cap space - $36 million for the Redskins, $10 million for the Cowboys, according to ESPN - because they dumped salaries in 2010, when the league operated without a salary cap after the collective bargaining agreement expired. According to a person briefed on the situation, teams had been warned by the league not to dump salaries or front-load contracts to take advantage of the uncapped year, although there was nothing in writing. The cap has been set at $120.6 million in salary for 2012, a slight increase over 2011. The Cowboys and Redskins are allowed to divide the cap hit over the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The money taken from them will be divided among 28 other teams, an additional $1.6 million in cap space per team. New Orleans - which could hear this week about discipline in the bounty scandal - and Oakland were determined to have violated the unwritten rules to a lesser degree, and will not receive the additional cap room. "The Management Council Executive Committee determined that the contract practices of a small number of clubs during the 2010 league year created an unacceptable risk to future competitive balance, particularly in light of the relatively modest salary-cap growth projected for the new agreement's early years," the league said Monday in a statement. To remedy these effects and preserve competitive balance throughout the league, the parties to the C.B.A. agreed to adjustments to team salary for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. These agreed-upon adjustments were structured in a manner that will not affect the salary cap or player spending on a leaguewide basis. In 2010, the Cowboys paid receiver Miles Austin $17 million in salary, which means all of it counted in 2010 and none was prorated over subsequent years, when the salary cap returned after the new labor agreement was reached last summer. The penalties could significantly hamper both teams in free agency. The Redskins, who have already traded three first-round picks to move into the second overall spot this year to select quarterback Robert Griffin III of Baylor, had hoped to use free agency to surround Griffin with available offensive talent. 2 SEEK SUSPENSION REVERSALS Lawyers for Ryan McBean and D. J. Williams, two of the three Denver Broncos suspended last week for violating the league's drug policy, have asked a state court judge in Colorado to reverse their suspensions, arguing that the N.F.L.-appointed arbitrator mishandled their appeals. Henderson, they allege, upheld the league's suspensions "despite acknowledging "troubling gaps" in the chain of custody and "an environment of haste, rushing, confusion and short cuts" " around the urine specimen collection process. JETS RE-SIGN POUHA The Jets accomplished one of their off-season priorities, re-signing defensive tackle Sione Pouha to a three-year contract. Pouha, one of the league's dominant run-stoppers last season, would have become an unrestricted free agent on Tuesday. "This is something that I've always wanted," Pouha said on a conference call. I'm going to be a Jet for life. It was critical for the Jets to hold onto Pouha, as much an asset in the locker room as on the field. His performance in 2011 (58 tackles, 3 pass deflections and a forced fumble) merited his recognition by ProFootballFocus.com as the top tackle who plays mostly in a 3-4 defense.