Prime Time

At first, it seemed as if Rick Santorum was questioning President Barack Obama's religious faith. Now, it appears that what he meant was to question the faith of all Americans who believe clean water, air and land is in the public interest. For someone running for secular office, the former Pennsylvania senator has expressed a lot of thoughts about Catholicism, Christianity and religion in general, but even his supporters must have been surprised when he denounced President Obama as embracing a "phony theology" during a recent campaign appearance in Ohio.

Editor's note: This is Bill Burt's second column in the Baltimore Sun. He is executive sports editor of The Eagle-Tribune. He has covered the Patriots and the NFL for 21 years. He has covered six Super Bowls, including the Ravens' win over the Giants in Tampa Bay in 2001. You can email Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com .   Here we go again. The only thing missing this morning is Bill Murray's character, weatherman Phil Connors, in “Ground Hog Day,” slamming the clock-radio realizing he is reliving Feb. 2 all over again.

Oh, that's right. Cafe Hon is a restaurant. It would have been easy, last year, to mistake Denise Whiting's Hampden establishment for almost anything else. It was only in November, when Whiting announced she was rescinding her controversial "hon" trademark, that the municipal emergency surrounding Cafe Hon subsided. Two months after the TV show "Kitchen Nightmares" gave it a wholesale makeover, Cafe Hon has settled back nicely into its primary business of serving food to customers — lots of them, too. On recent visits spanning several weeks, the Hampden restaurant was full of patrons, many but by no means all of them families with young children.

The Ravens-San Diego Chargers game, set for next Sunday night on NBC, will remain in primetime. There was plenty of speculation that the game, which is scheduled for an 8:20 p.m. kickoff, would be moved to the afternoon in favor of the game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos, pitting quarterbacks Tom Brady and Tim Tebow. However, no changes will be made, not that the Ravens were too concerned about the matter. "We're a team that loves to play football regardless of what time," said Ravens safety Ed Reed.

It's a good thing I like the Muppets, because there was no escaping them Thursday on the NFL Network. Ads for their movie, “The Muppets” were all over the screen as sponsor of the NFL Network's “Gameday” show that started at 10 a.m. from Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. And then, Kermit and the gang were back as sponsor of the pregame show at 8 p.m. Every time I looked at the screen Thursday, I saw a furry, crazed character. But that's OK, and not just because the Muppets make me smile.

Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf are not my favorite announcers - far from it. But give them and their producers credit Sunday: While it wasn't their main story line, they did include in their opening remarks Sunday a description the Baltimore Ravens troubling pattern this year of letting down after big wins.  And that was the same sad story for Sunday's 22-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. They didn't nail it, but at least they got a piece of it right in their pre-kick-off set-up.

Bob Costas is one of television's most thoughtful and engaging sports commentators. His essays, analyses and interviews for NBC Sports are in a league of their own. He understands the sociology and poetry of sports like few others - and is one of the reasons NBC's Sunday Night football package is headed for a second straight year as the highest rated show on prime-time television. The winner of 22 Emmys talked to the Sun last week about the Ravens-Steelers matchup -- and why this rivalry almost always seems to make for great TV. Q. In Baltimore, at least, Sunday's matchup feels like something more than just a football game.

This year, I gave up reporting cable news ratings every month. The numbers and spin tell us about the horse race to some extent. But what they mainly do is distract us from the important moral and cultural stories of the way these channels are warping our view of the world with their ideological and show biz priorities rather than any genuine commitment to news and information. But there are ratings, and then, there are ratings. And the October numbers that just came out offer a sobering snapshot of just how badly CNN's misadventures in programming are going -- even as they cheapen their news brand identity to try and find larger audiences.

As he listened to his quarterback Joe Flacco speak to reporters and waited his turn at the podium following his team's 30-27 comeback victory over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, Ravens coach John Harbaugh stole a couple of quick glances at a corner television, which was tuned in to the Pittsburgh Steelers' eventual victory over the New England Patriots. For the rest of this week, there will no ambiguity as to where the Ravens' focus lies. While always-entertaining linebacker Terrell Suggs may have been overstating things slightly when he guaranteed that the "whole NFL shuts down just for that game," there is no question that the Ravens-Steelers prime-time showdown Sunday at Heinz Field will not only add another chapter to arguably the league's most intense rivalry, but it could go a long way in determining the winner of the AFC North.

What was going on with ESPN's “Monday Night Football” during the first quarter? The primary camera shot was so far back and wide, I thought I was looking at high-school game film shot with a Kodak from atop press box - in 1967. OK, I am exaggerating, but not by much. Really. Meanwhile, the audio had an echo on it as if play-by-play man Mike Tirico's voice was also being piped over the stadium PA system. I don't want to sound superficial, but this is, after all, the look and sound of a prime-time telecast.