Pre Game Show

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.

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.

A RE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!Hey, bud, settle down. The game doesn't start for another four hours. And let's get something straight: You're not ready for some football. You're not close to ready. You don't know the rules.That's right, the rules. Don't think you can just stroll into the ESPN Zone and grab a front-row table. This is "Monday Night Blast," the pre-game and halftime show for ABC's "Monday Night Football," broadcast live from the Inner Harbor. And this is serious prime-time television.

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."

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."

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.

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 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...