The NFL’s owners, as expected, will meet virtually on Tuesday to discuss the recent megadeal with ESPN. Also as expected, they won’t be voting on the transaction.

It’s hard to imagine a vote being anything but perfunctory. The league is shedding media assets that have consistently underperformed, and getting a 10-percent stake in ESPN. Not even Mike Brown could say no to that.

The most likely explanation for pausing the formality of harvesting at least 24 “ayes” seems to be that the league is treading lightly, as it relates to the requirement of government regulatory approval. The current administration could be skeptical about the situation, and/or interested in leveraging it in some way.

Over the weekend, the president attacked ESPN’s sister company, ABC, over alleged bias in its news operation. (NBC was a target, too.) It’s a prime example of the kind of thing that could make it harder than expected to get the government to sign off on the move.

Prior reports have indicated that the league isn’t concerned about the deal failing to secure approval. Maybe that’s because both sides are committing to doing whatever needs to be done in order to ensure that the “ayes” will have it, both as to the 32 owners and as to the man who once wanted to own the Bills.