MORAL TO THIS STORY? NFL HAS CHANGED.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

The indignation, the moral outrage, the sermonizing - it's been more or less around the clock since the steamy lead-in to Monday Nihilist Football last week. Why we haven't seen this sort of firestorm in ... oh, about 10 months.

If it was Janet Jackson's nipple then, it is Nicollette Sheridan's backside now, and rest assured, there will be something more shocking, more titillating to come - and there won't be a towel big enough to cover it up.

The NFL is a receptacle for these kinds of stunts because with its surge in popularity, where the culture of the game has swallowed the game itself, its audience is the closest thing in sports to a cross-section of America - with its many strata, from blue state to red and many shades between.

In baseball, the game is so revered, so tied to history and tradition - so middle-aged white - that nobody would dare try something like this. When Fox wanted to put Spider-man logos on the bases, the hue and cry was so loud, it backed off.

In basketball, with its bling-bling culture - where Kobe Bryant loses more street cred for ratting out Shaquille O'Neal than for being accused of rape - this would have been treated with a shrug and a Charles Barkley wisecrack.

So, when Terrell Owens lets his libido do his talking in front of a national NFL audience, it provides a sort of a broad cultural Rorshach Test.

``I realized after the Rodney King case, you could show people something and they'd see what they want to see,'' said Dr. Todd Boyd, a professor of Critical Studies at USC.

``I don't think (the skit) was racist, offensive or in bad taste. What I see is another example of a conservative vibe and that's more of a concern than the promo itself.''

At the same time, Boyd acknowledges that there's another world out there. One that found it either too lascivious, or uncomfortable explaining to little Johnny why T.O. and Nicollette were playing shirts and skins. Or that don't approve of interracial relationships - if Sheridan jumped into Tom Brady's arms, would anyone care? Or, in the case of Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy, believes it perpetuated racial stereotypes.

Dr. Harry Edwards, a UC Berkeley sociologist, believes the ``racial subtext is very clear,'' but that where people fall on this is as much a matter of generation as it is race.

``Those who, like Tony Dungy, had an athletic experience in the '60s and '70s, on white campuses, have a different mind-set than the hip-hop generation,'' said Edwards, a consultant with the 49ers where he sometimes counseled Owens. ``(Owens) doesn't know anything about Emmett Till (the 14-year-old black boy who was lynched for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in the '60s), or about losing his scholarship and being run off campus in the early '70s for dating white women.

``What people of his generation see is on MTV or VH-1, black kids, white kids, twenty-something, all dancing to Beyonce, Destiny's Child, Usher, even Ludakris. From his perspective, what he did was not only acceptable, but routine.''

It's no wonder then that Disney president Roger Iger, whose company owns ABC, called it ``tasteless'' and ``inappropriate.'' Or that NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and several owners and coaches have condemned it.

New England coach Bill Belichick said: ``This can't become the XFL.''

Well, guess what? All that's missing right now is a hot tub filled with cheerleaders in the Dawg Pound. The NFL is as much about exotic dancers with pom-poms, erectile dysfunction and beer as it is about football these days.

``Football is all about sexuality,'' Boyd said. ``It's like people live in a cave or something if they see one of these images and they freak out.''

Thus, when, in a climate of five-second delays and the FCC decency police, the heads of the NFL and ABC say they're shocked - just shocked - to have seen such poor judgement, it smacks of disingenuousness.

But why should that be a surprise?

These decisions aren't made by individuals as much as they are made by corporate interests, which aren't driven by any standard other than dollars. Any decision the NFL makes is a business one - whether it's rule changes to promote scoring/TV ratings, where it will build a stadium in Los Angeles or whether it allows Janet Jackson on stage. The same for goes for ABC. Act now, and - if you must - apologize later.

It's not much different, really for T.O. - the marketing arm of the player known as Terrell Owens. Owens is an MVP candidate and had perhaps the game of his career Monday night, but it wasn't enough to trump the performance by T.O. If Dennis Rodman was just another great rebounder before becoming a walking freak show, what would Owens be without T.O. - Marvin Harrison?

Those who don't like it had best get used it. As Edwards points out, they are generally football fans already. It is the ones who find T.O. fresh, flamboyant and worth watching that the NFL is trying to pull in.

``If middle-age America doesn't come along, it's going to be left behind,'' Edwards said.

And so it is with no small amount of good fortune for ABC, the NFL and T.O. that the final ``Monday Night Football'' game of the season is Philadelphia at St. Louis.

Imagine the possibilities with another ABC hit, ``Extreme Makeover'':

T.O. returns, but instead of naughty Nicollette, he finds himself alone in the locker room with another scheming blond wearing nothing but a towel - Georgia Frontiere.

In a last-ditch attempt to keep Owens from playing, Madame Ram lowers her curtains. Not only does T.O. go running and screaming - Wait for me, Donovan! - so does everyone else.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2) CHASING MARINO

Peyton Manning, left, is on pace to set the NFL single-season record for passing touchdowns in a season.

Box:

NFL WEEK 11

- Daily News Wire Services