NFL makes 9 billion.
NFL keeps 1 billion off the top, before paying out percentages of profit to the players. Leaving 8 billion to split as they agreed.
NFL now wants to keep 2 billion off the top before profit sharing, leaving only 7 billion to split.
7 billion is less than 8 billion, ergo, paycut.
I'm not going to say that I agree with either party on this, I still think they should just agree to a 50-50 split and get back to work, but that's the way I understood a part of this problem to work.