D.j. Peters / AP

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue helped owners reach a six-year extension to the collective bargaining agreement Wednesday.

The union didn’t seem to care.

“This agreement is not about one side winning or losing,” Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association said in a statement. “Ultimately, it is about what is best for the players, the owners and the fans of the National Football League. As caretakers of the game we have acted in the manner the founders intended.

“Moving forward, this new agreement gives us the opportunity to continue our unprecedented success and growth.”

The deal probably saved a lot of veteran players from being released for salary cap reasons. Even Brentson Buckner, a defensive tackle cut last week by Carolina, was upbeat.

“It’s also good for the guys like me because now somebody has a little extra money and they can go after a veteran who might have gotten squeezed out in this,” Buckner said. “I’m sure the veteran minimum is going to go up, so guys like me can go out and get a one-year somewhere and feel good about the situation they are going into.”

The real debate was between the owners themselves on the important issue of expanded revenue sharing.

Low-income teams say high-revenue teams should contribute proportionately to the player pool because they can earn far more in nonfootball income from things such as advertising and local radio rights.

Under the new deal, the bottom 17 teams in revenue will not contribute to the pool, which will be funded with the top five teams contributing the most; the second five less; and the third five less than them.

Still, two of the lowest-revenue teams voted “no.”

“I didn’t understand it,” said Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson. “It is a very complicated issue and I didn’t believe we should be rushing to vote in 45 minutes. I’m not a dropout ... or maybe I am. I didn’t understand it.”

That 45 minutes followed a series of daylong caucuses and finally came out of a fusion of plans that Tagliabue said was forged by nine teams.

One was proposed by the New York Jets and New England, a second by Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Then John Mara of the New York Giants, Pat Bowlen of Denver and Jerry Richardson of Carolina met with Tagliabue and put the ideas together.

Jones and Arthur Blank of Atlanta contributed a little more, and then Pittsburgh’s Dan Rooney, whose son Art was involved in the Pittsburgh plan, joined with Atlanta general manager Rich McKay for additional touches.

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