Albert Breer of NFL.com argues why he thinks this is the case.
And it appears that now, finally, the parties locked in a battle that has produced a fourth-month-old lockout are arriving at the 11th hour.
The reason why lies in the money that would be lost with the cancellation of the preseason. The owners project the number to be close to $1 billion. The players say that number is inflated. Either way, no preseason means a significant chunk will be taken out of the revenue pie, which the owners and players have proven unable to divvy up throughout this whole process.
This is an interesting take.The lost revenue would clearly hurt both sides. No matter the proportion, the two sides are going to split money made. Any money lost means less for both sides.
I am not sure much would be lost on the players' side on the field if preseason is canceled. Frankly, those games mean next to nothing. There are a few benefits such as giving young players experience in a game setting or getting a new guy extra practice reps in a system like Santonio Holmes last year. LaDainian Tomlinson and Peyton Manning have won MVP awards after spending preseason games on the bench. I think the league could cancel preseason games, not make them up, and lose little in the quality of the regular season.