Deadlines matter, the Denver Broncos edition

Sometimes when I get all uppity, I imagine that proposal managers are the only people who truly have to meet deadlines.

If an engineer has to deliver a product to a customer and it's not ready, the engineer can negotiate with the customer and provide it a little bit later.

When the Federal Government is faced with automatic budget cuts that will ruin the economic world as we know it, the President and the legislators negotiate an extension.

But when I have a proposal due on Friday at 4:30 pm, I had better make sure that that proposal doesn't arrive at 4:31.

Well, despite my inflated view of my profession, it turns out that other professions have deadlines.

Such as the National Football League.

A defensive end with 63 ½ career sacks has just been cut because of paperwork.

The upstairs floor at Dove Valley was thrown into chaos Friday afternoon when the signature page from Elvis Dumervil and his agent Marty Magid that signed off on a new contract arragement arrived on the Broncos' fax machine at 2:06 p.m. — 6 minutes and one second past the deadline to file contracts to the NFL office.

When the Broncos did not have the paperwork in hand, they released Dumervil in lieu of guaranteeing his $12 million salary for the 2013 season.

It turns out that this may be a lose-lose situation.

The team could still re-sign Dumervil, but there are salary cap implications. Dumervil's release gives the Broncos a dead money hit and limits their ability to bring him back with a new deal.

More here. I heard about this via Gary Davenport.