The National Football League’s owners shuttled into a downtown Manhattan hotel on Thursday and approved a new collective bargaining agreement with players. They left pleased with themselves, sensing the imminent prospect of a deal that would potentially add a 17th game to the regular season and secure labor peace for America’s richest sport for the next decade. The deal, they hoped, could pave the way for a lucrative off-season of new media rights deals.

The problem: the players balked on agreeing to the deal.

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