The future for sports on television might be here.

The NFL has acknowledged that it has talked to Google about its Sunday Ticket package. The league’s estimated $1 billion per year deal with DirecTV runs through 2014.

From CNBC:

“Members of our office meet often with innovative leaders in Silicon Valley and around the world,” the NFL said in a statement. “We are constantly looking for ways to make our game better on the field, in the stadium and for fans. We are not commenting on any specifics of the meetings.”

Peter Kafka in AllthingsD.com writes:

An informal chat is a very long way from a deal, so there’s no need to invest too much in the conversation quite yet. And I’m told that Goodell and other NFL executives are meeting with multiple Silicon Valley companies on this trip, which is one they make annually.

That said, Google plus the NFL is an intriguing concept. Google could certainly afford the rights, which currently cost DirecTV $1 billion a year.

And while YouTube is the world’s most popular video service, Google has been playing around the edges of TV without making a substantial dent. An NFL deal could certainly change that.

Indeed, the presence of Google means there is a new player in the mix for NFL rights. It opens up all sorts of possibilities for how the package will be distributed.

Since I have no intention of getting DirecTV, I would be in favor of a new deal that would enable me to get Sunday Ticket. I’m sure others feel the same way.

At the very least, the ridiculously rich NFL is going to get much richer once this deal is done.