NFL: No Funds Lacking

By LARRY STEWART

Jan. 14, 1998 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The final pieces of an eight-year, $17.6-billion NFL television contract fell into place Tuesday, creating a number of broadcasting free agents.

With the Disney-owned entry of ABC and ESPN knocking NBC and TNT out of the NFL picture, those involved in football at NBC and TNT will be looking for jobs.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said NBC’s Dick Enberg, who has been announcing pro football since first calling Los Angeles Ram games on radio in 1966. “It’s just hard to imagine not doing pro football.”

He will do his final game for NBC on Jan. 25 when he, Paul Maguire and Phil Simms call the Super Bowl.

“There will be a lot of emotion there, that’s for sure,” he said. “We won’t talk about it that much on the air because I don’t think the audience cares, but we will feel it.”

Enberg said he wasn’t sure what the status of his NBC contract is but assumes it will be affected. “I don’t see how they could justify paying me in full without football,” he said.

Ed Hookstratten, Enberg’s agent, said, “We have to wait and see how things play out. NBC still has a lot of sports--golf, Olympics, NBA, Notre Dame.”

Enberg said he knew things weren’t going well after talking with Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports, at the AFC championship game in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

“His face was ashen when he told us it didn’t look good,” Enberg said. “The people I really feel bad for are the young, talented, behind-the-scenes people--the assistant producers and directors--who are now out of work. It’s just a shame.”

TNT was shut out when Disney made a $600-million-a-year bid to get Sunday nights exclusively for ESPN.

TNT commentator Pat Haden said, “It’s very disappointing. The TNT job was perfect for me.

“I thought we were going to be OK, but I got a little worried when CBS got the AFC. I knew that threw things out of whack.”

What that did was start a bidding war between ABC and NBC for the Monday night package. Disney, using ESPN as its secret weapon, was able to keep NBC out by overbidding for Sunday nights.

Cable networks have the advantage of being able to pass costs on to subscribers. Still, the cost of the Sunday-night package was mind-boggling.

The $600-million price tag makes the Sunday-night package the most expensive. ABC will pay $550 million a year for “Monday Night Football,” plus three Super Bowls over eight years. Fox will pay $550 million a year for the NFC and three Super Bowls, and CBS will pay $500 million for the AFC and two Super Bowls. ESPN gets only regular-season games for $4.8 billion over eight years.

Turner issued a statement saying it couldn’t justify paying the kind of money Disney was paying to keep its half of the cable games. Thus, Haden is among those looking for work.

Play-by-play partner Verne Lundquist might be too, although he also calls NBA games for TNT. He was not available Tuesday night because he was in Chicago, announcing the Bulls’ game with Seattle.

Haden said he’s going to take a deep breath before trying to figure out what to do.

“Would I go to CBS and work on the No. 5 team?” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t have an agent. Maybe I’ll have to get one.”

NBC’s Charlie Jones, the dean of network football announcers, is also looking for work.

“My contract expires after the Super Bowl,” he said. “I’m hoping my experience with the AFC will help me with CBS.”

Jones called the first televised American Football League game on Sept. 10, 1960, for ABC, when the Dallas Texans--later the Kansas City Chiefs--played the Los Angeles Chargers at the Coliseum.

Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports, said Tuesday that CBS play-by-play announcers Jim Nantz and Sean McDonough probably would be used on NFL games, but there will be some play-by-play openings.

As for using CBS college commentators such as Terry Donahue on the NFL, McManus said he wasn’t sure.

“We might have some college commentators double up,” McManus. “It’s too early to say.”

Michael Jordan--the CBS chairman, not the other one--said, “You need an elephant before you can make elephant soup. We just got the elephant.”

McManus, asked about the possibility of John Madden returning to CBS, said that was unlikely.

“John has made it clear he prefers the NFC package or Monday Night Football,” McManus said.

McManus was an executive at TWI, a management company, before joining CBS a little over a year ago, and TWI handles Madden. Asked if his past relationship with TWI might help in trying to land Madden, McManus said, “I think if John thought we might be able to get him at a lower price just because of my relationship with his agent [TWI’s Barry Frank], he’d have to fire his agent.”

Ed Goren, Fox’s executive producer, said he talked with Madden on Monday night and is convinced Madden will either stay at Fox or go to ABC.

“With John, it’s not the money,” Goren said. “He can look back over the past four years and ask himself, ‘Am I happy at Fox?’ I’m sure he’d say his years at Fox have been great. But I also think he is intrigued about the possibility of doing ‘Monday Night Football.’ ”

Bob Iger, president of ABC, Inc., said Tuesday night his network has not had any discussions with John Madden about coming to “Monday Night Football.”

Pat Summerall isn’t sure what his broadcast partner of 17 years is going to do, but he doesn’t expect to be going anywhere. “I believe in loyalty, and Fox has been very good to me,” he said. “I know what the people at NBC and TNT are going through because that’s what we went through four years ago.”

Al Michaels is simply glad ABC was able to retain the Monday night package. “I had some very anxious moments,” he said from the Canyon Ranch resort in Tucson, where he is vacationing. “I was so nervous I went on a 12-mile hike, which is about five miles longer than I’ve ever gone before.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NFL TV Contracts Through the Years

Breaking down the NFL’s new package:

NFL (1998-2005): $17.6 billion

Fox (NFC): $4.4 billion

CBS (AFC): $4.0 billion

ABC (Monday night): $4.4 billion

ESPN (Sunday night): $4.8 billion

1998: $17.6 billion

1994: $4.3 billion

1990: $3.7 billion

1987: $1.4 billion