Labor of Love

Not that we never really worried, but the National Football League we know and love was kept intact last night. Facing a do-or-drastically-alter deadline, league owners meeting at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport voted to accept a collective bargaining agreement proposal from the players' union. I could tell you that the...

By Robert Wilonsky

March 9, 2006

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Not that we never really worried, but the National Football League we know and love was kept intact last night. Facing a do-or-drastically-alter deadline, league owners meeting at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport voted to accept a collective bargaining agreement proposal from the players' union. I could tell you that the players clearly won this oft-contentious standoff, earning an extra billion dollars in shared revenue through 2011. I could tell you that owners voted 30-2 to accept the six-year agreement, with only the small-market Bills and Bengals dissenting. I could tell you that high-revenue teams such as the Dallas Cowboys agreed to relinquish larger slices of their pie. ("We were willing to make some sacrifices to get this thing done," said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. "The proposal was a mean mother.") But all you really care about is that nothing's changed: The draft is April 29, training camps begins in July, and Super Bowl XLI will be February 4, 2007, in Miami. And, unfortunately, Bill Parcells is still the head coach of the Cowboys. —Richie Whitt

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