Sports betting fans wait all winter, spring and summer to start betting on NFL games in the fall. The Las Vegas football odds makers sit quiet as the NFL owners and players try desperately to hammer out a new deal. For weeks now, the owners and players have been meeting in undisclosed locations all over the country. It looked like the players and owners wanted some privacy so that they could hammer out a collective bargaining agreement and get back to the business of playing football.

With the media chasing its tail trying to see what airport the negotiation teams are landing in, the two sides started to get to the core of their problems. It was said that nearly 80 percent of all of the issues that stand between a stalemate and an agreement were already decided. The problem is that remaining 20 percent that contains hot-button issues such as revenue distribution and an 18-game regular season. Just when the breeders cup betting picks experts were seeing light at the end of the tunnel, another roadblock came up and the negotiations could be in serious trouble.

When the stumbling block in the negotiations was the players, NFL fans could at least speculate that the problem may be something other than money. This newest hurdle to negotiations is caused by the owners, and it is all about the Benjamins.

A group of NFL owners came out in opposition to the direction that the negotiations were taking, causing the negotiations to stop and the owners to have their own meeting to all get on the same page. It is now being revealed that the owners have been divided on the terms of the new CBA since at least March, and many of the problems stem from the unresolved issues in the 2006 CBA that seem to be creeping into the new negotiations. Chief among them is the owners' contention that the distribution of revenue is too skewed in the players' direction.

The newest unofficial deadline for being able to start the preseason on time is July 14. If an agreement is in place by then, it will give the lawyers for both sides time to get everything legally settled. Any delay after July 14 means that the preseason and regular season could be threatened.