The "Original Sin" here was Kraft's caving in San Francisco.
He didn't even have to threaten to take the League to court. He could have just said that he was "keeping all options" open and challenged the other owners to look at the facts and ask the question, "can this happen to me too?"
In some ways it all started when none of them stood up to the League when the Saints were being hosed. The owners don't seem to have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for each other and actually seem to kind of like it when a successful franchise is "taken down a peg." Remember, most teams haven't even sniffed a trip to the SB in many years, so there's plenty of pent up resentment in that crowd.