Yay! Someone else who shoots with a Pentax! What model, Squeaky?

McCloughan out as 49ers GM.

Yup. I was at a kids party watching the game. I love to see upsets, but not when it screws my entire bracket!

In a move that will at least remove the NFL's nightmare scenario of a Super Bowl that's unduly impacted by the flip of a coin, the league's owners on Tuesday surprisingly approved a modified sudden death overtime proposal.

The new rule, which will be in effect for the NFL's postseason only, allows the team that loses the coin flip at the start of overtime to have a possession unless a touchdown is scored -- either offensively or defensively -- on the first possession.

Twenty-eight of the owners voted to approve the proposal, with four voting against it -- Buffalo, Minnesota, Baltimore and Cincinnati. Twenty-four votes were needed to approve the proposal.

The league's coaches were said to be overwhelmingly against the measure, but the owners were swayed by the weight of statistics showing that 59.8 percent of the games since 1994 -- when kickoffs were moved back to the 30-yard line -- were won by the team winning the overtime coin toss.

The importance of the selection looms even larger now that the NFL is 12 months from what could be its first work stoppage in 24 years. The players association is so convinced the owners will close their doors when the collective bargaining agreement expires in March 2011 that its Web site features a "LOCKOUT WATCH" in the masthead.

The owners approved the current collective bargaining agreement in 2006 but opted out of it two years later because, in their opinion, it forces them to assume too much of the financial risk to grow the game via new stadiums, league-owned media outlets and international games. The current agreement calls for as much as 59 percent of total league revenues to go to player salaries. The owners' initial proposal for a new CBA sought to have the figure slashed to 41 percent.

That sound you hear in the background is laughter from the union offices.

The players are not going to take that big a rollback, and the league knows it. That's one reason Smith has yet to make a serious counterproposal. In his mind, there's no reason for the union to negotiate against itself.

"If there is a lockout I will leave it to the NFL's management to explain to America why they took away America's game at a time when some teams make $90 million a year in profit, according to Forbes magazine, and some teams make $20 million in profit on the low end, according to Forbes," Smith says. "I'll leave it to the NFL to explain the justification for taking away America's game when the average NFL owner makes $31 million a year in profit -- in the worst recession of our lives. We have been talking about this for a year and not one person from the National Football League has ever said that that $31 million profit figure is wrong. Not one."

Smith was elected in part because he was an outsider with fresh ideas. After listening to league representatives repeatedly talk about the increasing financial risks owners are assuming, he suggested the sides create a true partnership in which there were equal risk. The way to do that? Give the players ownership stakes in the teams. His plan: For each percentage point the owners received in rollbacks, the players would receive an equity share in the franchises. When an owner sold the team, the players' share of the profit would go into the players' pension fund.

"What better way to take care of the risk that the owners have than to become true partners?" Smith says. "We've already been told by the Management Council that the owners aren't interested in that. My response is, then where is your risk?

"If you're a waiter and you're on your way into the restaurant to work, how many take out $10 and stuff it into a box because it's going to keep the lights on in the restaurant? Nobody does that. So you have NFL owners saying that we need players to rent their own locker rooms. That's in the proposal. And pay for their own travel costs. That's in the proposal. The 18 percent rollback contains a list of costs that they want the players to bear. Included in that cost is, we need you to give us money back for the operation of the practice facility."

Smith wants the owners to open their books so the union can see where the money is being spent. Are owners paying themselves or their relatives exorbitant salaries? Are they using the team to cover losses or expenses in other businesses? Are they charging themselves for luxury suites or travel unrelated to the team? The league views such questions as diversionary tactics, contending that the union knows to the penny how much revenue each club receives and what portion goes to player salaries. One league source said the teams don't open their books to each other, so there's no way they're going to open them for the union. Smith remains undeterred.

I'll leave it to the NFL to explain the justification for taking away America's game when the average NFL owner makes $31 million a year in profit -- in the worst recession of our lives.