In Atlanta yesterday, representatives of the NFL's players and team owners were still haggling over a deal to end a four-month pay dispute. You need an advanced degree in accounting to understand the intricacies of the dispute. But it has been summed up by President Barack Obama as a case of billionaires squabbling with millionaires over the vastness of their respective bank balances. The advent of Twitter has only added to the acrimony. "Tricked, duped, led astray, hoodwinked, bamboozled" was how the Washington Redskins defensive end Vonnie Holiday on Thursday described the experience of negotiating with his corporate masters over a formula for calculating the "salary cap," an upward limit on the amount NFL teams spend on players.
Haggling over the cap, which effectively dictates what proportion of the league's vast profits end up in the pockets of players, has been going on since the last Super Bowl, when an old deal ran out. For almost the entire off-season, clubs have instigated a "lockout" – a sort of reverse strike, which sees playing staff banned from training facilities.
With days (if not hours) until the affair delays the start of the season in September, deadlock appears to be on the verge of breaking. Under a new deal – endorsed by team owners but awaiting the approval of players as this went to print – the "salary cap" will be marginally reduced.
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