What a difference two years make.

In March 2006, thirty of the league’s owners voted in favor of a Collective Bargaining Agreement that gives 59 percent of the total football revenues to the players.  Now, all of them have voted to pull the plug on it two years early.

Per Adam Schefter of NFL Network, the owners voted unanimously on Tuesday morning not to extend the CBA through the 2012 season. 

Only nine votes were necessary to kill the deal early.  Presumably, the unanimous vote is the result of an effort by the owners to project a united front in their negotiations with the union.  (We’d heard that Commissioner Roger Goodell was trying to get the owners to defer the decision.  So much for that.)

It also makes us think that the owners aren’t yet serious about worst-case scenarios like an uncapped year or a work stoppage.  Instead, the 32-0 vote tells us that they see no harm in trying to negotiate a better deal.  The worst-case scenario would be agreeing to the same terms that they presently intend to honor for the next three seasons.