January 17, 1998

Tommy Moe, who won Olympic gold in downhill race at Kvitfjell, Norway, has yet to win another international race; has suffered major knee injury, and a major dose of reality; on Lauberhorn, in Wengen, Switzerland, as skiing's newest poster child, Hermann Maier of Austria, gambles and wins his fifth consecutive World Cup race, Moe hits tricky series of small bumps and crashes; he emerges unscathed, but for the moment; gap between Moe and Maier seems great, with Olympics four weeks away; photos (M)

CBS acts as linchpin in latest round of negotiations between television networks and National Football League, which achieves the most lucrative deal ever largely because of CBS's determination to get back into game; CBS, Fox, ABC and ESPN commit total of $18 billion over next eight years for their parts of the package; NBC is shut out, ending its 33-season association with pro football; TNT, which shared Sunday night games with ESPN, also leaves the field; photos (M)

Siege mentality sets in at Microsoft Corp as result of company's long antitrust fight with Justice Department and an embarrassing series of legal and public relations setbacks; whole Seattle area, the beneficiary of Microsoft's growth and philanthropy, largely shares company's sense that Government is out to get it because it dominates the software industry to such an extect and has provided so much wealth, but some of envy, criticism and concern is now coming from loyal customers; photo of headquarters in Redmond, Wash (M)

William C Rhoden, in Sports of The Times, comments on television networks' agreement to pay NFL phenomenal $18 billion to televise football games over eight-year span; notes Warren Moon, Seattle Seahawks' quarterback, contends multibillion-dollar daal should give league more latitude to be charitable; photo (M)

Sam Dordoni, 50-year-old inventor from Watkins Glen, NY, is promoting use of gravity-powered shuttle train that he designed and built; he has been barnstorming around Manhattan with his prototype Gravtran, monorail-like system, made from plane, crane and truck parts; Dordoni is confident there is a place for cheap, fuel-free, nonpolluting people mover that gets all energy it needs from its passengers' climbing up flight of stairs; drawing illustrates how his gravity car works; photo (M)