Pre Game Show

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...

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.

What a touching milieu was to be presented Sunday during NBC's NFL pre-game show when Jim "Warrior Quarterback" Harbaugh and Jim Kelly, he of the armor-piercing tongue, kissed and made nice before the nation.There were just two problems with the scene. The first was that Harbaugh -- who broke a bone in his right hand after supposedly taking a poke at Kelly the weekend before for remarks the former Buffalo quarterback-turned-commentator made about Harbaugh's toughness -- had the good sense not to show up for the staged event.

The University of Nevada-Las Vegas basketball team and CBS analyst Billy Packer share a couple of characteristics.Both are clearly the best. UNLV is No. 1, undefeated and seemingly headed to a second consecutive national championship, and Packer continues to be college basketball's most informative, effective commentator. But both bring with them troubling baggage.In UNLV's case, there are coach Jerry Tarkanian's 100-year war with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, recurring reports of recruiting improprieties and other violations and a looming NCAA probation.

ESPN is undergoing a little restructuring at its very top, with its current president getting a newly created position.Steve Bornstein, who has been president of ESPN for eight years, has been promoted to chairman of the ESPN empire, with his second-in-command, George Bodenheimer, becoming president.The move frees Bornstein, who also runs ABC Sports, to focus on growing the ESPN behemoth even larger, particularly on the foreign side, while Bodenheimer concentrates on the domestic operation.

Before yesterday, area NHL fans might have been singing a sad tune about the lack of games on local television. In fact, it could have gone like this (with apologies to The Who's "Baba O'Riley"):Out here on the dial,you could search for a while,and never find a little hockey.It may not have been right,and not seemed too bright.As a matter of fact, it was downright schlocky.Hockey wasteland, it's only hockey wasteland.Those days are over, though. Home Team Sports yesterday reached an agreement with SportsChannel America to carry SCA's NHL package.

Today, of course, is a day to express gratitude for the things that are most important in life, to give thanks, if you will, hence the name of the day. And it's a good thing that it's Thanksgiving Day, for Gratitude Expression Day probably wouldn't work all that well on a greeting card.But if you're a person who loves to watch football on television, every day in general, and today in particular, is a day to give thanks to Ravens owner Art Modell.With 32 years as chairman of the NFL's television committee, Modell has been as instrumental as anyone at shaping the very policy that makes it possible for good folks like you to enjoy today's heaping helping of gridiron fun, including Fox's Chicago-Detroit offering (Channel 45, 11: 30 a.m. pre-game show)

In the topsy-turvy world of network television, you just never know where your next great idea or hire is going to come from. At Fox, for instance, the best addition to its football crew, pre-game show analyst Cris Collinsworth, came straight from the head of one of its chief competitors.When NBC was forced to fold up its NFL shop, Collinsworth, the mainstay of its pre-game show, was wavering between coming to CBS for its New York-based, AFC-centered show or going to Fox's NFC-oriented program, which originates from Los Angeles, and told his agent he thought he would go to CBS.However, Collinsworth, a former Pro Bowl receiver with Cincinnati, said NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol advised him to take the offer from Fox."

At the last convention of the TV Sports Critics Association, held in the console television section of the Macy's at Livingston (N.J.) Mall -- I'm pushing hard to get the convention for Maryland next year; this could mean tens of dollars for our state, particularly at the food court -- the gathering agreed on goals for 1991:* Personal growth. Most of us achieved this, but I'm going to try cutting down on those snacks.* Fewer but better adjectives. I, for one, didn't use "punctilious" once all year.

The TV Repairman:The burning question with regard to Orioles baseball on television this season is, can John Lowenstein, a part-time player and, until now, a part-time analyst, hold up through the rigors of the 162-game season?And along those lines, just how frazzled will Birds partisans become, as pennant fever reaches epidemic proportions, attempting to keep up with which of what seem like a dozen outlets will be carrying the game that night?Yesterday's opener, for instance, was on Channels 13 and 20, while tomorrow night's game against Kansas City will serve as Home Team Sports' opener and Friday night's contest vs. Texas will see Channel 54 getting its feet wet. And, don't forget, Washington's Channel 50 has a piece of the action, too.After being on the outside looking in since 1978, WJZ did a commendable job upon its return as main commercial carrier for Baltimore, showing unusually good sense restricting its pre-game show to a half-hour.