No. 1 Pick Headed to Falcons : Ismail: Patriots trade top choice to Cowboys, who are expected to trade it again.

The Atlanta Falcons will get the right to pick Notre Dame star Raghib (Rocket) Ismail before the pro football draft begins Sunday, sources close to two NFL clubs said Friday.

The teams are the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, who, earlier Friday, worked the trade that took Ismail out of New England.

Officials with all three clubs were unavailable for comment. But Atlanta and New England have been prevented from dealing directly, the sources said, because of a personality conflict between Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville and Patriot personnel officials.

That set up a rival coach, Jimmy Johnson of Dallas, as the NFL broker for Ismail, the young receiver, runner and kick returner who is widely conceded to be the only potential superstar in the draft.

Friday’s play-by-play:

--With the draft’s No. 1 pick, the financially weak Patriots, unwilling to match the Toronto Argonauts’ two-year, $6-million offer for Ismail, traded the first choice to Dallas for two lower choices, No. 11 in the first round and No. 14 in the second, and other undisclosed considerations.

--The Cowboys, intending to pass the No. 1 along to Atlanta, went into immediate negotiations with Falcon officials and were confident they would come to an understanding that would put Ismail in Georgia and strengthen the Cowboys even more in the draft, in which they already hold three first-round picks.

--The Falcons, with the No. 3 and No. 13 first-round choices, were unwilling to give up No. 3 and, instead, offered the other pick and other considerations to Dallas.

--Glanville was able to pressure Johnson and Dallas owner Jerry Jones to make a deal favorable to Atlanta because Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman’s contract is standing in the way of a move to Dallas by Ismail. This year, Aikman will make about $1.3 million. The Argonauts have established Ismail’s value at closer to $3 million a year, although the Patriots reportedly offered him only $1.7 million. If Ismail gets $3 million or so from the Cowboys, Aikman will balk.

--The Cowboys, however, were able to pressure Glanville with equal vigor, for it is Glanville who wants Ismail.

--Finally, Argonaut owner Bruce McNall’s $6-million offer is still pressuring both of them, as well as the rest of the NFL. The NFL doesn’t want Ismail in Canada.

McNall couldn’t be reached Friday afternoon. Nor could Ismail’s attorney, Jon Edwards. Only Aikman’s attorney, Leigh Steinberg, and Ismail’s adviser, Ralph Wiley, returned phone calls and spoke for the record.

“We won’t (protest) publicly,” Steinberg said, if the Cowboys hand Ismail $3 million this year and Aikman $1.3 million. “But privately, we’ll pointedly discuss (with Johnson and Jones) the difference between a player who touches the ball five times a game and one who’s in on every play.”

Wiley expects Ismail to get McNall kind of money either from McNall or an NFL team.

“The difference between (Ismail) and a quarterback is that you have to wait three to five years for a quarterback,” he said. “Great runners are instant sensations. Gale Sayers scored 22 touchdowns as a rookie. Marcus Allen had a great rookie year. Eric Dickerson had a great rookie year.

“There’s no such thing as (Ismail) having to grow into the job. He’ll make an immediate impact.”

Glanville has frequently made the same point.

There are three reasons the Falcons have been trying to pry the top pick away from New England:

--They want to pair Ismail with Andre Rison to give Atlanta two spectacular targets for quarterback Chris Miller in Glanville’s wide-open offense.

--In a stadium that seats 59,000, the Falcons have sold fewer than 40,000 season tickets this year. They agree with McNall that Ismail would sell enough additional tickets to pay his salary.

--More important, the Falcons are moving next year into the new, even larger Georgia Dome. And Ismail, they say, will give them an even bigger boost in the new place.

Even so, the Falcons have been unable to deal this spring with the Patriots, whose director of player operations, Joe Mendes, has had long-standing feuds with Glanville and Ken Herock, Atlanta’s vice president of player personnel.

Thus the Cowboys stepped in to do the job for Glanville. And in so doing, the Cowboys apparently bested the Patriots’ new leader, President Sam Jankovich--unless the “other considerations” Jankovich got from Dallas are better than most in the NFL expect.

He didn’t get much with two mid-round selections in the first and second rounds and other undisclosed considerations, but the Patriots later Friday picked up the 17th pick overall from the Houston Oilers for second and fourth-round selections.

The Cowboys now have the Nos. 1, 12 and 14 picks. And by Sunday, they will have either another one from Atlanta, along with the other considerations, or they will have Ismail.