Apparently football’s affect on concussions and CTE are not the only thing that the NFL has been hiding. Salary caps rise and fall from season to season, but the biggest salary cap rise was in 2006 when it went from $85.5 million to $102 million.

This year, however, that record might get broken. The NFLPA received a favorable arbitration ruling last week that could increase the salary cap by an additional $1.5 million per team for this season. The exact number will be decided before March 9th when the NFL’s business year begins.

“Our union will always look to enforce our economic rights under the collective bargaining agreement,” the NFLPA said in a statement. The NFLPA contends that the NFL ‘miscalculated or was hiding money due the players.’ The money that was excluded over the past three years totaled $100 million, according to the union.

“The decision should have no effect on the league’s long-standing commitment to stadium improvements,” the league stated. “That commitment was most recently reflected in the league’s decision to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support for the Rams’ new stadium in Los Angeles as well as financial support for new stadiums in Oakland and San Diego.”

We will probably never know if this was intentional on the part of the NFL or if it truly was a ‘technically accounting matter’ as the league put it. However, one thing we do know is that the Panthers already had decent salary cap space and now they will have even more room to be able to strengthen their team.