Help me out here... (we can keep this brief...)

And I'll add this observation in here also.

The old CBA was agreed to by both parties. Both side's lawyers and participants thought it was a good thing, or at least an acceptable thing.
I've seen the argument made that under this CBA, the NFL was in dire jeopardy of literally 'going out of business'.
So, either the NFL's lawyers and participants at the time of the acceptance of the agreement were total buffoons, or, that idea is a load of tripe.