With the current NFL collective bargaining agreement set to expire on March 4, the league's owners and players have less than two weeks to come to a deal, or else find themselves in the midst of the first work stoppage their sport has seen in nearly 25 years.
If recent talks are any indication, things are not looking good.
This wasn't supposed to happen - at least not right now. Back in March 2006, the owners ratified the current collective barganing agreement by a 30-2 vote (the owners of the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals voted against it). By most accounts, the players received the better concessions in the deal, as the CBA granted them approximately 50% of all NFL revenues.
The agreement was originally set to expire in 2013, but the owners, who quickly became disenchanted with the deal, exercised their right in May of 2008 (with a 32-0 vote) to end the agreement two years early.
What would cause the owners to agree to terminate a deal that they had willingly signed a mere 26 months earlier? In a word: money.
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