Ex-Viking Sharrif Floyd withdraws grievance with NFLPA

Former Vikings defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, whose career ended because of nerve damage he suffered following surgery on his right knee in September 2016, has withdrawn the grievance he had filed with the NFL Players Association against the Vikings for putting him on the non-football injury list in 2017.

Floyd, a 2013 first-round pick who was scheduled to make $6.757 million on his fifth-year option a year ago, was placed on the non-football injury list when the nerve damage in his knee prevented him from playing last season.

Teams are not required to pay players while they are on the NFI list, but the Vikings had agreed to pay Floyd $2 million of his salary when he was on the NFI list. Floyd had filed his grievance for the remainder of his salary, arguing he should have received his full salary — as he would have on injured reserve or the physically-unable-to-perform list — since the surgery happened as the result of a football injury.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Floyd withdrew the grievance earlier this month. Sources with access to NFL Players Association salary data said the Vikings were credited with the $2 million they had agreed to pay Floyd, as well as the $1,902,800 of cap space occupied by Floyd's pending grievance. While grievances are pending, 40 percent of their potential worth counts against a team's salary cap. Since Floyd filed his grievance seeking his entire salary, and subsequently withdrew the grievance, he did not receive any of his 2017 salary from the team — which is why the Vikings were refunded all of the cap space that had been allocated to Floyd.

Floyd filed a lawsuit against Dr. James Andrews and others in Florida's Ninth Circuit Court earlier this month, seeking up to $180 million for career-ending damage that allegedly was caused by an operation the Andrews Institute performed on his right knee.

According to the lawsuit, Floyd had consented to a procedure he was told would keep him out three to four weeks during the 2016 season, but Andrews and two "very new" surgical fellows performed a surgery that involved puncturing and drilling into the bone. The operation would have ended Floyd's season, according to the lawsuit, and an anesthesiologist allegedly administered a pain blocker directly into a nerve in Floyd's right knee, causing permanent nerve and muscle damage.

The Vikings, who had under $280,000 in salary cap space earlier this month, now have more than $4.235 million, according to NFLPA salary data. The team can roll over unused cap space into the 2019 league year, and the extra room could help the Vikings in their efforts to re-sign a pending unrestricted free agent such as defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson or linebacker Anthony Barr.