With Nearly All Of $8 Billion Gap Closed, Season Can Be Saved
NEW YORK -- At one point during the most important negotiation in two years of psychological and economic warfare, someone took a moment for comic relief.
It was much needed, and much appreciated given the stakes -- a cancelled season, a fractured league, a squandered opportunity to build upon astronomical growth and momentum.
In the restroom outside the conference room where owners and players were trying to move the ball, as Billy Hunter put it, from the 2-yard-line to the end zone, there were two urinals: one tall one, and one short one. A piece of paper was taped to the wall above each.
One said, "Players."
The other said, "Owners."
If things had blown up Tuesday -- if the anticipated fiery inferno of rhetoric, name-calling and ego-driven tirades had ensued -- then none of this would've been funny. But knowing what we know now -- that the owners and players have closed nearly all of the $8 billion gap that separated them a few months ago -- it might just be safe to laugh.
