NBC flagged for changes to pregame show

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This maxim applies as much in sports TV as anywhere else, yet NBC this weekend chose to ignore it.

What did Dick Ebersol, the network's sports chairman, do? He took "Football Night in America," far and away the best NFL pregame show on the tube, and reinvented it. The new creation marginalizes Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth, who last year made the program work. Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann, who comes across as cynical and conceited, has been anointed as the effective new star.

The moves are bewildering.

The dynamic duo of Costas and Collinsworth has been effectively broken up. Costas now sits on one part of the set, uncomfortably laughing at Olbermann's sarcastic attempts at humor. Meanwhile, Collinsworth is housed in an enclosed glass room on a different part of the set, serving up questions for two other ex-players, returnee Jerome Bettis and newcomer Tiki Barber.

The supercilious Olbermann will have his own commentary segment each week: "Worst Person in the NFL"--based, as Costas put it, "on criteria all his own." The segment will be a knockoff, evidently, of Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" bit on "Countdown," his MSNBC news show.

Costas and Collinsworth can only be shaking their heads.

Other highlights and lowlights from the week:

* SING IT AGAIN -- Regardless of the pregame show, "Sunday Night Football" is still the place to be, having stolen supremacy from ESPN's "Monday Night Football" last season. One reason: Faith Hill's new rendition of "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night," set to the original Joan Jett song "I Hate Myself for Loving You." From its opening line ("All right, Sunday night, where are you?") to the end, it's a boffo opener.

* BEST COMMENT -- From a Fox Sports phone conference that featured commentator Troy Aikman talking about NBC's Barber.

Aikman: "A team needs great character in addition to great talent. . . . When you look at the Giants and see all of the talent they've had over the last several years, you almost have to say, 'Why hasn't this team been able to accomplish more?' Then you look at some of the public comments made recently by Tiki Barber about Eli Manning. I don't think you have to look much further than to say, 'You know, maybe now I understand why this team has underachieved.' "

* BEST AD -- The 30-second spot played during the U.S. Open in which John McEnroe was shown talking to an American Express agent about their new "dispute resolution" bill service. "Interesting," McEnroe says.

Eleven hours later McEnroe arrives by cab at a retiree's doorstep. "Klaus Ulnaut, umpire at the '85 U.S. Open?" he says. "McEnroe!" comes the angry, fearful response, and the old man starts shutting the door.

"Wait!" McEnroe says. "There's a chance that ball did hit the line. You're not evil. Come here!" The two men then hug as McEnroe's voice is played over the scene: "Less arguing," he says. "That's why I'm a card member."

* WORST SHOW -- The NFL Network-produced "Opening Kickoff Special," shown on NBC before Thursday night's Colts-Saints game. This run-up to the game was ridiculously over the top and hyper-dramatized.

There were two settings--Monument Circle in Indianapolis and the Colts' RCA Dome. Several hundred people had apparently been trained to wave their arms to the music of Kelly Clarkson's "Never Again" and Hill's "This Kiss" at the Circle. And the NFL Net's Rich Eisen, emceeing the dome portion with what seemed to be an echo-chamber device attached to his mike, was hopelessly over the top.

"Which teams will play for the championship?" Eisen asked, his voice booming inside the dome. "In the immortal words of Ludacris, 'Who wants it more?' "

All I can say is ugh!

* ADVANTAGE MCENROE -- The quality that made him such a lout on the court during the '80's has in a certain way served him well as a commentator--he's been there and simply says it.

During the captivating men's final Sunday, Roger Federer denied Novak Djokovic five set points before winning a first-set tie-breaker. Djokovic tossed his racket and during the break splashed the water in his bottle onto the court.

"Maybe some of the longest two minutes of this young guy's life right now to have to regroup here," McEnroe said. "He's going to have to dig deep now because Federer is gonna get better--I'd be surprised if he didn't."

Federer, of course, didn't lose a set.

Bill Taaffe is a former award-winning TV-radio sports columnist for Sports Illustrated. His "Remote Control" column appears Tuesday. He can be reached at taaffe-reviewjournal@earthlink.net.