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fact, it got out of hand, as you know, in some markets. But I couldn't convince the affiliates that they should spend their money to build something that, I guess, they weren't sure would continue to be theirs.

At any rate, we lost it--or CBS lost it, and I feel bad about it, because I had taken an awful lot of pride in negotiating some of those contracts early on, when it looked as though NBC was going to try to take it away from us at that time. In fact, I was severely criticized by the affiliates for spending so much money on it one season; and yet, if we had lost it, you know, they would have been sick. They finally agreed that we had made the right decision.

It came at a time when I had to make the decision myself. My colleagues who would normally have been consulted--meaning Jack Schneider, head of the television network and a couple of other executives--they were away on Christmas holiday, and the football people put the gun to my head and said we had to get a decision before Christmas. I thought we had an understanding that we would continue discussions about the contract after the first of the year. One of the particular League owners--I believe it was Cleveland--virtually on Christmas Eve said he wanted to get the thing settled before the holiday. I expect because he wanted to get away for the holiday.

I just had to bite the bullet and take it. And, of course, when I--I think at that time I bid something like $90 million for what they spend a lot more money for now. That was way beyond anything we had spent. My colleagues came back after Christmas and said: “My God, you lost your mind when you paid this price.”

I said: “Yeah, you guys were away having a good time. How would you have felt, if you had