Gosh you're right. $23 mil in dead money means nothing and it couldn't have gone to any good use, like say, using it for future contracts. Money is fungible, unless it's spent - in this case on bad contracts. Your knowledge of football financial gymnastics is considerable and you should certainly feel smug about it. You have a fine future in Government finances and can explain why increasing spending is actually a budget cut. At the end of the day it's $23 mil spent on nothing that could have been spent on something else.