When the NFL TV talks ended, ABC was crowing, Phil Simms was polishing up his resume and the guards at Black Rock were sporting "NFL on CBS" hats.
The league put the final touches Tuesday on a new $17.6 billion, eight-year deal that sent NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue to the bank, NBC and Turner Broadcasting to the bench and CBS back into the game.The blockbuster package was completed when Disney struck a stunning $9.2 billion, eight-year contract with the NFL, keeping "Monday Night Football" for ABC and winning the entire Sunday night cable package for ESPN.
ABC made the dramatic announcement on "World News Tonight," when a correspondent said: "ABC gets Monday night, NBC gets nothing."
NBC's final broadcast after a 33-year run will be at the Super Bowl on Jan. 25. That could be the last NFL game for longtime play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg, who will likely stay at NBC.
"It hasn't sunk in yet," Enberg said Tuesday night. "After 32 years of doing the NFL, it has become part of my autumn life. It's hard to imagine not doing it."
Simms, co-analyst Paul Maguire and most of the network's NFL team will be looking for work.
"The NFL and NBC had a tremendous long-term relationship spanning thousands of hours of great football," Tagliabue said. "It's very difficult to have that end, as it was very difficult to interrupt a similar relationship with CBS in 1993.
"We also enjoyed a special association with Ted Turner and his talented group of TV professionals," he said.
NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
CBS, which signed a $4 billion, eight-year deal for NBC's AFC package on Monday, celebrated its return to the NFL by passing out hats at its Black Rock headquarters in New York.
"To know that we're back in the NFL is a real relief," said CBS Sports president Sean McManus, whose network fell to No. 3 after losing the NFL to Fox four years ago.
After watching the NBA double its money in its TV contract in November, NFL owners wanted the same result. And they got it.
Along with the $4.4 billion, eight-year contract signed by Fox on Monday, the NFL will take in at least $2.2 billion annually. The previous deal, which expires next month, paid the league $1.1 billion a year for four years.
The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC and ESPN, will pay $1.15 billion a year for "Monday Night Football" and games on Sunday night, 137 percent more than ABC, ESPN and TNT paid for the same games under the last contract.
ABC and the league are expected to move the starting time for "Monday Night Football" to 8 p.m. Eastern time from its usual 9 p.m. slot.
ABC gets the rights to three Super Bowls. Fox also will show three Super Bowls and CBS two.
ABC also must decide whether to keep its longtime announcing team of Al Michaels, Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf. Fox analyst John Madden, who is a free agent, has said he would consider bolting Fox for whatever network got "Monday Night Football."
The NFL can reopen the contracts before the 2003 season. If it doesn't, an escalator clause kicks in making the total value of the contract $18 billion.
TNT, a division of Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System, has been showing NFL games on Sunday nights for the first half of the season since 1990.
TNT balked when it was asked to pay $295 million to retain its half of the Sunday night package.