Gang of Nine strikes back

"I continue to believe that the problem lies with the high revenue clubs and the revenue sharing issue. Their refusal to share more revenues is making it worse for everybody -- players, owners, and fans."

- Gene Upshaw

With the reports on the CBA discussions going from dead, to cautiously optimistic, and back to dead, it appears the Gang of Nine (i.e. the nine highest revenue producing teams) have prevented a new CBA from being passed. Since the NFL needs 24 owners to approve any new CBA, it takes 9 owners to block any proposed deal.

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The Gang of Nine is believed to be made up of the 'Skins, Eagles, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, Panthers, Broncos, Patriots, and Texans. This may leave me open to accusations of being a management scab, but I think these teams have every right to hold onto these currently unshared revenues. The owners of these teams found additional ways to produce revenues from their clubs, which other franchises (like Cincinnati) have failed to do. Now these loafish, grasshopper-like franchises (i.e. Cincinnati) want to steal some of the hardworking, ant-like franchises' grain.

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The Bengals and the Grasshopper share more similarities than you might have thought.