Gene Upshaw

On a professional level, I will never forget that time as an executive with the Packers, as we were scheduled to play the Giants a few miles from Ground Zero that weekend.

While the two sides in the NFL labor dispute work on revenue sharing among the owners and players, revenue sharing among the owners -- a problem lying beneath the surface of this two-year dispute -- lies dormant.

It has now come down to this week in the two-year attempt to extend NFL players' Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expires Thursday at midnight.

Both sides in the NFL labor dispute are fighting for the hearts and minds of fans, but fans are starting to clamor for more conversation and less positioning and lawyering.

The dominant story in football in the coming months will be the potential for the "no football in 2011", a season washed out by NFL owners locking out NFL players from playing games.

Of all of Upshaw's many legacies and accomplishments, the most lasting may be the enduring impact of his negotiation of the 2006 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFLPA and the NFL.

The NFC Championship was decided with a coin toss, a kickoff return, a pass interference penalty and a field goal, which helped fuel the current vigorous debate about overtime rules.

NFL owners decided to extend Roger Goodell's contract for five years, adding over three years to the original term. The question to ask is not "Why?" The question is, "Why now?"

For most sports fans, labor negotiations are really boring. Who cares how much these millionaires on both sides of the table earn? At the same time though, they are also quite frightening.

It does not matter which side initiates a work stoppage, each side ends up hurting itself as much as the other side. NFL owners will not lockout players in 2011 because there is a better option.

There is an important result of an uncapped NFL that is not receiving enough attention: without a cap in the NFL, not only is there no ceiling on player spending, there is also no floor.

The pulling of the plug on the SRS by the NFL might be the biggest play of any prior to next season, a season during which the NFL could look a lot different than it does now.