NEW YORK (AP) – The ever-present gossipmongers in the television world worked overtime a while back when Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports, had lunch at an expensive New York restaurant with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

That must mean, went the rumors, that NBC is back in the picture for a piece of the NFL’s television contract, which it lost when CBS jumped back in after the 1997 season.

Right. And wrong.

NBC might be interested, but only Fox is in serious negotiations, according to both industry and NFL sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Both sides said they have discussed substantive issues but have arrived at nothing definitive. That’s because the first crack at the most lucrative contract in sports goes to current rights-holders Fox, CBS, ABC and ESPN. It’s something like restricted free agency for players: A new team can get in the game, but players’ current teams, like the league’s current networks, have the right of first refusal. But the Tagliabue-Ebersol meeting – in a spot where they were sure to be seen by other important people – is the classic method the nation’s most prominent league uses to squeeze big money from the networks. The idea is to let the other guys know you’re meeting with the odd man out, and they’re bound to be more willing to up their bids.

“The price will be whatever the NFL can generate,” says Neal Pilson, a television sports consultant who is the former president of CBS Sports. “It’s the most valuable property in television, and nobody wants to get left out. You’re talking about 60 rating points a week, more than any Super Bowl gets, and 10 times the number for any other sports property.”

It’s still early.

The eight-year $17.6 billion contract between the NFL and the networks doesn’t run out until after the 2005 season.

And regardless of who gets which package – Fox, CBS, ABC, ESPN, or outsiders like NBC or other cable networks – fans will get their football. Perhaps at slightly different times or even new days, but not in any way radically different from what they’re getting now.

But if it’s not a big deal for viewers, it is for the networks.

When Fox outbid CBS for the NFC package in the contract that started the 1994 season, it turned itself into a legitimate network.

Some Fox affiliates grabbed more desirable spots on the dial, and the revenue helped develop programming that has made the network competitive in prime time. The loss of the NFL had a hugely negative effect on CBS, which got football back by outbidding NBC for the AFC package four years later.

In the Fox talks, NFL officials hint that the network might be after something bigger than its current Sunday afternoon package of NFC games. Network officials, without speaking for attribution, acknowledge the talks are going on but indicate they are satisfied with their current situation.

If there is to be a change, it could involve Sunday or Monday nights, although those games probably will stay within the ABC-ESPN family, owned by Disney.

Despite top 10 ratings every week, ABC has been losing money on the most lucrative prime-time sports show. That’s in keeping with a general slide in all ratings as the television universe has expanded to include cable and satellite.

So one scenario painted by both league and industry officials is a flip-flop of prime-time games, with ABC taking the Sunday night package, and ESPN getting Monday night. Last season, ESPN gave ABC the Thursday night opener, which began in 2002 and will be kept to give the league a one-game start to the season.

ABC will do that opening game again this year Sept. 9, when Indianapolis is at New England, a repeat of last season’s AFC title game.

But the Monday night shuffle – if there is one – could open the way for NBC to get back into the picture.

The NFL would love that. ….

The more competition, the more money.

AP-ES-07-21-04 1602EDT