[CRedskinsRule]

The article I linked to from Andrew Brandt had a part where he basically said that the owners don't trust the NFLPA to handle the detailed information in a "honorable"(my word not his) way. The NFLPA has the breakdown of revenues, assets, expenditures on a league wide scale, they simply don't want to show team by team details. In an atmosphere of distrust I guess that is understandable.

I can't necessarily wrap my head around what the NFLPA might misuse, but when Smith says it's a "war" then I imagine the owners aren't thrilled to give away any ammunition.

This is an analogy that I kinda understand, but it is far from perfect since no one thinks there is illegality on either side:

Lets say 2 people were together from 3am - 7am, they were smoking pot. One of them (Mr. O) still has some on him when he leaves. Walking down the street another person witnesses a police officer stopping Mr. O and asking him if he can search him in reference to a robbery that occured at 5am. Mr. O says no (because he has the pot on him, which is not involved in the situation at all), but says his friend will vouch for his whereabouts. The observer thinks that Mr. O is guilty, based primarily on his refusal to be searched. The police officer is highly suspicious. How it plays out, depends on how the officer and Mr. O co-operate, and how reliable Mr. O's friend appears.

In the CBA drama, the Owners clearly don't want to show the books because of something that may or may not be relevant. If the aggregate numbers are reliable, and give reasonable substantial agreement to the Owners assertions then the bottomline comes down to how well the Owners and NFLPA co-operate and the trust they both have in the other