TIPOFF : NFL OWNERS MADE BAD CALL WITH DEMANDS.

Byline: RICK ORLOV

LIKE a car salesman trying to add one more feature - ``Sure you don't want a CD player?'' - it appears the National Football League owners went to the well once too often this time.

While politics and professional sports is a place where you never say never, it has gotten to the point that even one elected official representing the Coliseum area is prepared to walk away.

``If this is a case of the state giving money to essentially offset a franchise fee, I'd have to vote no,'' said Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles. ``We have to fit football into the park, not make the park fit football.''

Besides, if Houston is offering such a good deal, he added, let the league go there.

With the various exchanges last week leading up to the NFL saying it would take its ball and look elsewhere in Los Angeles for a stadium, what is new is that nothing is new.

There will be more talks, generally behind closed doors, with representatives of the two competing ownership groups and Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas - who has been working on the Coliseum proposal for three years - attempting to salvage what they had two weeks ago.

And one person who will not be included in the discussions is the mercurial Bill Chadwick. Chadwick is the investment banker tabbed by Gov. Gray Davis to represent the state in the negotiations and who has wound up taking a lot of blame from the NFL and others with a stake in L.A. getting a franchise.

Many see the NFL's latest position as just another example of the problems faced by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who has been an active proponent of having an expansion team in the Coliseum.

With the same insight that cost the city two professional football teams and seeing UCLA move to the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum Commission is at it again with its decision to hire lobbyists to help it with the state.

No problem with that, since many governmental bodies hire such firms to make their case with the Legislature.

But nothing is simple when it comes to the commission.

With Democrats in control of both houses of the Legislature, not to mention Davis, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, among others, the Coliseum Commission went out and hired the noted Republican firm of Nielsen, Merksamer in Sacramento to represent it.

And, in another football note, while mega-agent Mike Ovitz is sweating out the NFL machinations these days, his top aide is faring much better.

Peter Levin, partner in charge of high-tech and Internet investments with Ovitz, and his father, Alan, recently were awarded a franchise for an arena football team in Chicago for the 2001 season.

One of their partners is former Chicago Bears great, Walter Payton.

The San Fernando Valley is getting its fair share - at least on the Los Angeles Fire Commission.

For the first time in city history, the panel's president, David Fleming, and its vice president, Mel Wilson, are both from the San Fernando Valley.

Fleming was one of Mayor Richard Riordan's first appointees and has served on the Fire Commission since 1993.

Wilson also has been close to Riordan and served as one of his appointees on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority before moving to the Fire Commission.

California Republicans are gearing up for their fall convention in Anaheim next month, and the big question so far is, Where's George W.?

As in George W. Bush, the Texas governor who is the front-runner in the 2000 presidential election.

Party officials announced this week that they have commitments from three presidential candidates, Elizabeth Dole, Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes.

But nothing yet from Bush.

``We are talking to his people and think he might be able to come out,'' spokesman Stuart Deveaux said. ``It's a question of his schedule.''

Negotiations are also under way with Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Vice President Dan Quayle and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

The state party is trying to impress upon the candidates the state's importance in next year's primaries, particularly with the vote moved up to March.