Pre Game Show

For most of the 1990s, the NFC championship game has been one of the sexy events on the sports calendar, with more than enough star power to hold a viewer's interest.With some variation of the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers involved, the NFC title game has more often than not been more compelling than the over-ballyhooed Super Bowl, played two weeks later.But for the first time in seven seasons and only the second time in the last 11 years, none of those teams, with their proven marquee value, will play for a Super berth.

Viewers who tuned into yesterday's Orioles season opener expecting new/old analyst Mike Flanagan to bowl them over with dazzling stuff probably came away disappointed.And that's no dig at Flanagan, who starts his third tour of duty in the booth, wrapped around turns as the Orioles' pitching coach. The team's all-time winningest left-hander is a fount of baseball knowledge and possesses one of the game's quickest wits as well.For instance, while Flanagan, fellow analyst Jim Palmer and play-by-play man Michael Reghi were discussing Arthur Rhodes and his off-season weight loss, Flanagan dropped in that he had once lost 15 pounds during an off-season.

Fox Sports president David Hill was relaying an observation from "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening that two things are likely to happen when the next millennium rolls around: There will be a "Y3K" problem and the Super Bowl pre-game show will start a month before the game.This year's effort is slightly shorter, coming in Sunday at a less-than-svelte seven hours. That's not a misprint, and hey, let's be grateful it's only that long.Pre-game producer Scott Ackerson, otherwise known as the unluckiest man in America, said he could use another 30 minutes Sunday.

Though he spent three hours in the "Monday Night Football" booth last night, ABC analyst Boomer Esiason's most astute observations yesterday came during his appearance on Don Imus' morning radio show.Esiason, on the phone from Dallas, the site of last night's game, chuckled at the thought of the overwrought Sunday NFL pre-game shows, and wondered aloud, "What's going on?"Esiason spoke specifically of Terry Bradshaw's tear-filled chat with Green Bay's Brett Favre and his wife, Deanna, over the quarterback's problems with drinking and prescription drugs.

With a 40-minute pre-game show, 24 cameras positioned around Fenway Park and six on-air commentators and reporters, it's obvious that the word that best categorizes Fox's coverage of tonight's baseball All-Star Game is "understated."Yeah, right. We're talking about Fox, a network for whom subtle means that Ally McBeal's hemline rides an inch above the knee rather than to mid-thigh.Nope, when the Fox types sign on tonight (Channel 45, 8 o'clock), look for a program heavy on spectacle."This is the only telecast we do all year when this is not a game, it's a show," said game producer Michael Weisman.

While the Ravens are locked in battle each Sunday, there's another a little skirmish going on the radio for the ears of football-listening fans, before and after the games.As CBS Radio's WLIF (101.9 FM) and WJFK (1300 AM) are getting fans psyched for game coverage and stoking them afterward every Sunday afternoon, WBAL (1090 AM) is attempting to siphon off listeners and -- more importantly -- advertising dollars by doing its own pre- and post-game Ravens show.As you might figure, both have their selling points and drawbacks.

Admittedly, being grateful for having a network NFL telecast to work on doesn't quite stack up to the more profound currents that run through most of our lives, like home, health and family, but Jim Nantz is nonetheless thankful today to be back in the NFL game."

NEW YORK -- For the first time in its five-year history, the Fox NFL pre-game show isn't getting all the attention in pre-game show circles.That's because CBS, back in the football business after four years on the sideline, is re-starting its pre-game show, ABC is starting one from scratch and ESPN is expanding its show to two hours.Amid all that change, "Fox NFL Sunday" (Channel 45, noon) is looking pretty sedate, and coordinating producer Scott Ackerson happy with that."It's kind of weird for us being the old guys," said Ackerson here yesterday at a news briefing.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to run away from your past, and CBS didn't even try yesterday as it returned to the NFL after a four-year absence.At the top of the new "NFL Today" pre-game show, the network aired a montage of its storied football history with footage of Pat Summerall, John Madden, Jack Buck, Vin Scully, Brent Musburger, Phyllis George and Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, all parts -- good or bad -- of CBS' four decades of NFL telecasts.The...

Whatever words one might conjure up to describe Fox football analyst Cris Collinsworth, reticent would certainly not be one of them.Collinsworth, the most recent addition to the network's free-for-all-style pre-game show and an Emmy Award-winner to boot, has never run away from expressing an opinion, so when he was asked earlier this week why there was a perception that play in the NFL was off the usual standard, the former Cincinnati receiver got right...

It's Friday, and so here's one more unpleasant thing before the weekend - another set of sports media notes: After working the first two games of the major league season for ESPN in Japan earlier this week, Gary Thorne's vocal cords should be over jet lag in time to call Monday's Orioles opener. Thorne is joined by Jim Palmer in the booth and Amber Theoharis on the field. The game will be simulcast on WJZ/Channel 13 and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network at 3 p.m. However, the high-definition version of the Orioles vs. the Tampa Bay Rays will be available only on the MASN HD channel, not WJZ. WJZ's pre-game show begins at 2, featuring sports anchor Mark Viviano and his news-desk colleagues.

Presenting more sports media notes while looking ahead to perhaps our greatest national holiday, embraced by those of all faiths and no religion, by those with every shade of skin, by those whose American roots go back 400 years or last year and by those from one end of the political spectrum to the other, Super Bowl Sunday: Just added to the Super Bowl festivities: The coin for the flip will be carried out to midfield by ESPN's Dana Jacobson, who will...

Ravens unworthy of benefit of doubt Tuesday's Sports section led with the headline: "Unofficial targets?" The article following rhetorically asked whether the Ravens are assessed more penalties than deserved. The answer is probably yes, but it's easy to see why. Much like a pitcher who has been consistently wild throughout his stint in a baseball game is not given the benefit of the doubt on close calls, the same may be true of the Ravens. Any team that celebrates the most routine play as if it were the Second Coming deserves a torrent of flags.

HOW TO TAG the Super Bowl? The ultimate game? Duane Thomas cured us of that. An unofficial American holiday? Sure, we all agree. How big is it? It's intergalactic, planetary (note pathetic attempt to be cool by quoting a 7-year-old Beastie Boys song). It's a pageant (note pathetic attempt at indie cred with Wag the Dog movie reference). The NFL gives it those mock heroic Roman numerals - thankfully not being used in The Sun - usually reserved only for Rocky movies and old-money heirs with homes in the Hamptons.

LET'S SAY YOU'RE a middle-aged guy. It's a Sunday afternoon, and you're planning to relax by watching a little football, defined as "11 consecutive hours of football." You settle on the sofa and turn on the pre-game show, and the first thing you see is a commercial for a pickup truck. This is followed by another commercial for a pickup truck, and then, for a change of pace, several more commercials for pickup trucks. Then there are about 45 seconds of men talking about football, followed by still more commercials for pickup trucks.

TAMPA, Fla. - Though CBS' presence here is less surprising than that of the New York Giants or the Ravens, "we might be the most excited team to be here," said CBS' Jim Nantz, host of the pre-game show. It has been nine years since the so-called tiffany network carried the Super Bowl. CBS had lost the NFL, regained it and waited its turn behind ABC and Fox. "Every decision we've made has been geared toward this coming Sunday," said Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports. "It's not just the biggest day in American sports - it's the biggest day in American television."

Sports television, like life, is filled with delicious little ironies. The latest little one unfolded the other day on a preseason NFL conference call when a Fox official and some announcers were peppered with questions about Dennis Miller. The irony, of course, is while ABC is getting attention for opening up the sport to entertainment for placing Miller, a comedian, in the hallowed booth, it's been Fox that cleared the brush, with a decidedly lighter approach to televising the game, over the past six years.

It's already been a long season for CBS basketball analyst Clark Kellogg, and the end isn't necessarily in sight. Kellogg, who rides shotgun in the studio with Greg Gumbel, has seen bits and pieces of all 60 NCAA men's tournament games from the network's New York studio, and is taking his act to Indianapolis, the site of this weekend's Final Four. Add the basketball that Kellogg has seen this month to what he sees throughout the year as analyst on Indiana Pacers games, and it's easy to understand why Kellogg won't be getting anywhere near a basketball for a while.

In today's 500-cable channel universe, the keys to success for a fledgling channel are to get brand recognition and to create a buzz that becomes so powerful that cable operators come clamoring. As ESPN Classic's new vice president and general manager, Mark Shapiro has a double shot of brand recognition, with the name of the self-proclaimed world-wide leader in sports and perception that the channel will show all the history-making games. But Shapiro, who took over the channel four weeks ago, is laboring late into each night to beef up talk about Classic as a place to see more than the 1970 Super Bowl or 1965 Masters.

Chances are, you will remember your neighbor Marcy's guacamole, the beer-shilling frogs and the Phil Collins halftime spectacular from Sunday's Super Bowl better than anything from the four-hour pre-game show, and John Filippelli hopes to change that. Filippelli is the vice president of production for ABC Sports, and it's under his watch that the network's Super Bowl telecast falls. It's telling that the other day on a media conference call he was willing to invest the most promotional capital on the pre-game show rather than ABC's main game coverage.