The revenue-sharing debate among NFL team owners has become so combative that a group of owners of the most prosperous franchises has threatened to take legal action if a revenue-sharing plan they don't like is forced upon them. Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney said yesterday that the threat has been made by a group of six to nine teams. Rooney said he regards it as "an idle threat" that will not be carried out by the clubs, which he did not identify. "I think they might vote against revenue-sharing, but what are they going to sue for?" Rooney said in a telephone interview. "They're trying to say if we get the votes [to approve a revenue-sharing plan], they'll sue. I don't see what they can sue about. They have the right to vote no." The threat is a sign of how fractious revenue-sharing deliberations among owners have become. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is attempting to get owners to agree to a plan to increase the amount of locally generated revenues that teams would share, but a faction of owners of the wealthiest clubs has resisted. Revenue-sharing deliberations among owners are taking place as they attempt to negotiate an extension of their labor agreement with the NFL Players Association.