updated 9:45 a.m. ET March 9, 2006

GRAPEVINE, Texas - NFL owners were willing to trade nearly a billion dollars for the certainty of a salary cap rather than risk life without one.

And they waited until the last minute to do it.

But the NFL’s 32 divided owners finally agreed Wednesday evening to the union’s proposal, including a revenue-sharing component that will cost owners nearly a billion dollars over the next six years.

The deal will carry the NFL through the 2011 season. Two low-revenue teams, Buffalo and Cincinnati, cast the only votes against.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said $850 million to $900 million in players’ salary will be added over the life of the deal because of the revenue-sharing component, which the union fought for throughout the on-again, off-again talks. The money will come from the teams that make the most in revenue beyond the television money that is already shared. Only the top 15 revenue teams in each year will be required to pay into that part of the salary pool.

Now the league’s free agency period, put off twice by protracted negotiations, will start Saturday to give teams additional time to get under the newly elevated salary cap.

The spending limit for teams will be $102 million this year, $7.5 million more than it would have been without a deal, and 20 percent higher than the 2005 figure of $85.5 million. Still, some teams may have to cut players to get under the cap by Saturday.

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The cap will increase to $109 million in 2007, which would have been an uncapped year that would have widened the spending gap between teams even more.

“We want teams to get additional money to re-sign players, rather than cutting them,” Tagliabue said.

The deal was put together by nine teams who began on different sides of the revenue debate, including such high-revenue teams as New England and Dallas.

“We were willing to make some sacrifices to get this thing done,” said Dallas owner Jerry Jones, the most vocal opponent of revenue sharing. “The proposal from the union was a mean mother.”

Daniel Snyder of Washington, Jones’ ally among the high-revenue teams, was more upbeat.

“It’s really a win-win situation,” he said.

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Added Oakland’s ailing Al Davis, a longtime maverick who was one of Tagliabue’s leading supporters during this debate: “The whole idea was that no one was totally dissatisfied. We had to have labor peace. That’s why I came all the way here. I don’t make many of these trips anymore.”

The agreement comes after a week of on-again, off-again negotiations, culminating in a two-day owners meeting. Tagliabue predicted it would come down to the 11th hour.

It did and perhaps went beyond: Tagliabue said an agreement was reached at 6:59 and 59 seconds CST, a second before the deadline to notify the union. League spokesman Greg Aiello originally announced the deal had taken place at 7:35 p.m. after league officials said earlier the 8 p.m. deadline didn’t specify what time zone.

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