So it looks like Bob Kraft, the Pats owner, saved the labor negotiations

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2006/03/12/behind_nfls_deal_a_driving_force/

Behind NFL's deal, a driving force
As deadline closed in, Kraft plan created framework that helped combative owners find common ground

(snip)

At one point during the often contentious negotiations, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones mockingly offered to buy the naming rights to Paul Brown Stadium from the Bengals for $5 million ''because I can double that in about five minutes, Mike." Brown did not respond but the heat in the room was building when the Patriots' Jonathan Kraft and the Jets' Woody Johnson offered up a revenue-sharing plan devised by Kraft. Of the four plans that would be discussed, it was the only one that included all three elements essential to a deal: 1. a funding mechanism for expanded revenue sharing; 2. a value on how much was needed for it to work; and 3. a distribution plan. As it turned out, many of the men involved confirmed last week, the key was that Kraft suggested not only that his team was willing to put in $3 million or more of the Patriots' money a year, but that it would forgo its share of new revenues the league had been generating annually, thus increasing the revenue-sharing pie without taking a slice from the present income of high-revenue clubs.

''It's a lot easier to talk about sharing what you don't have yet than it is what you've already got," Jones said later. ''That was a major part of it. We took things from the future and basically shared that. We agreed to some things we're not sure how much will be involved financially. That was a brilliant stroke."

...more...

[nickgutierrez]

1. Yeah, well, they still suck.

:P