>> representing the national football league will be paul clement, who will be flanked by anastasia danias, she's from the national football league, and also beth wilkinson from paul weiss... >> narrator: they insisted the league had done nothing wrong. >> let's be clear. we strongly deny those allegations that we withheld any information or misled the players. and if we have to defend this suit, as paul was alluding to, we will do that and be able to make those factual allegations. but we absolutely deny those allegations. >> narrator: but away from the cameras, the two sides were engaged in tense court-ordered negotiations. >> the players, initially, they were requesting around $2 billion or a little more than $2 billion, and what we've been told is the nfl was offering virtually nothing-- they were offering "peanuts," as one person said. >> narrator: the players believed they had significant leverage-- a threat to the nfl. >> the threat was that the doctors and...