My understanding is that the cap has been raised at least once, I thought twice, but they were both early in the league's existance and not by a lot of money. Additionally, the league has had a "flexible" (to say the least) interpretation of contracts and player acquistion rules. For instance, being able to use acquisitions against the cap when the player is a free transfer (which has the affect of being able to expand the cap). The "Special Discovery" creation of a year ago. The creation of P-40 players (who don't count on the cap). I thought the marquee player replacement rule was eliminated but am not sure about that. In any case, there have been a bunch of league decisions since "96 that have had the affect of expanding or shrinking the cap somewhat (even though the dollars remained the same).