On The Clock
Dan Ferens

On August 1, 2001, Dan Ferens was hired by the Houston Texans as their first director of negotiations.

Ferens spent the previous year as vice president for McCormack Advisors International, the financial arm of IMG in Cleveland. IMG is one of the world's largest athlete management and sports marketing agencies.

Prior to IMG, Ferens spent 20 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers as chief negotiator/business coordinator. During that span, the Steelers appeared in the playoffs 10 times including Super Bowl XXX. In 1998, Ferens was one of two unanimous selections for best 'captologist' in a USA Today poll of 50 NFL executives.

Ferens, a native of Connellsville, PA earned his bachelor's degree in accounting from St. Vincent College and later received a master's degree from Robert Morris. PSR's George Von Benko recently put Ferens On The Clock.

PSR: What is the biggest difference in your job in Houston compared with what you did for Pittsburgh?

DF: The big difference is I'm not involved with the travel. I travel with the team, but I'm not too involved with the travel or the operations of training camp. I'm a little more involved here on the pro personnel side than I was in Pittsburgh.

PSR: What has been the biggest change in the business aspect of pro football since you started some 20 years ago?

DF: Money: there isn't any question. This is the absolute biggest thing that's changed. The money has become so big : everybody is going to defend the players salaries by the fact that the team's have so much more money coming in, which is absolutely true. Today if you have a guy that's a borderline starter and you offered him a million dollars you wouldn't even get to first base.

PSR: What is managing the cap?

DF: Each team is given a certain amount of dollars each year to spend on their players. $75 million is what you're going to be allowed to spend on players for 2003. What my job is: one of my most relevant jobs is to manage the cap. You have so many things involved as far as playing time and guarantees and the way so many things are categorized. It's along the lines of the federal income tax. There's so many laws governing it. This cap has become so complicated: far more complicated than it needs to be. It started with a base and just like our income tax and you just ad different layers on.

PSR: What is the most difficult part of your job?

DF: I'll tell you what is really a pain in the rear end. This might seem little to you; they're called injury settlements. You have a guy that gets hurt and you know he's hurt and he can't play and you need a roster spot. If you cut a guy you've got to pay him and you're not supposed to cut players who are injured. The agents have their opinion as to how many weeks you should be paid and we have our opinion. Number one your faced with getting the roster spot, an agent is up against a team that needs a roster spot. Number two (the agent) knows that there's a cap problem: so he has you over a barrel. If you don't settle, you face a half a million-dollar cap charge.

PSR: What's the most rewarding part?

DF: Seeing the success of the team.