Should not that simple fact, and the downside that would follow, convince them all to work together? Well, it used to. However, the local revenue numbers have skyrocketed in some cities so dramatically that it has caused the normal levels of greed that made all these owners what they are today to mutate into the kind of greed than can lead eight or nine of them to threaten to sue their partners if they're forced to share, even if the vote is democratically taken.

This recently led Pittsburgh Steelers' owner Dan Rooney to ask, "Sue over what? They can vote no.''

True, but they can't win, and rich guys like Dan Snyder, who owns the Washington Redskins and makes fabulously huge profits, are used to winning. Or at least to getting their way.

In a nutshell, the problem, it seems, is basically that while NFL owners love capitalism, they also love monopolies. They love the free-market system but only as long as they don't have to play along with too many of the rules of the free-market system. In point of fact, as Upshaw said recently, "Everything they do is illegal,'' meaning monopolistic things like the draft (illegal), transition and franchising players (illegal), one-way contracts (illegal), well, you get the drift. What allows them to get away with such things, which fly in the face of both the constitution and federal labor law, is that they've been agreed to by a union representing the players' best interests. But that can change in a minute if the players' greed isn't soon satisfied.

Upshaw is threatening to ask the players to vote to dissolve the NFLPA on or around March 9 when the Governing Board meets in Hawaii (how come these guys never meet in Buffalo?). He would do this to avoid the owners trying to impose a lockout on the players — the theory being you can't lock out union members who don't have a union.

He would also do this so that quite quickly antitrust laws would again apply to the league and even the greediest of owners knows the NFL's winning percentage in federal court on matters of antitrust is similar to the Cardinals' winning percentage in playoff games.

As you can see, the stakes are rising quickly on both sides, and so is the rhetoric. When Upshaw gave his annual state of union address during Super Bowl week, he showed up for the first time in years with Jeffrey Kessler, one of the nation's top antitrust lawyers, at his side. Kessler lingered for some time after Upshaw finished speaking to answer questions about the league's antitrust violations and the NFLPA's legal options if the present agreement isn't extended.

Over on management's side, you heard for the first time in years the word "lockout'' as well as talk of obscenely rich guys suing only ridiculously rich guys over the one side's refusal to share local revenues with the other side the way their mothers and the NFL's founders taught them.

Is this all a recipe for disaster? Kraft insists not, saying this is what happens at such times, with all sides jockeying to get as much as they can before the "11th hour and 59th minute arrives'' and a deal is struck.

It is then and only then, he says, that common sense prevails. Not long after he said that, it was learned he was among the eight or nine owners threatening to sue his partners if forced to share local revenues equally.

So much for the 11th hour and 59th minute.

Kraft is a very smart guy, but he's also one of the guys who doesn't want to share with partners he feels are not working as hard or as intelligently as he is to maximize their investment. He's a very good businessman who understands brinkmanship and suicide and is smart enough to avoid them both on most occasions.

But then again, the guys who own hockey teams and baseball teams were supposed to be smart guys too, and look what they've done. Could the same thing happen in pro football? You wouldn't think so, but don't underestimate the most destructive force on earth — blind greed.

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