Radio/TV

ABC wants anything but a blowout

SAN DIEGO -- If this season wasn't the worst in Monday Night Football history, then ... never mind. It was the worst.

There was blowout after blowout, starting with New England's 30-14 season-opening win over Pittsburgh that was a snoozer by halftime and culminating in St. Louis' 31-20 win over the San Francisco reserves, which deservedly earned the lowest MNF rating in history and dropped the season rating below last year's by a 10th of a point.

In between, there were less-than-memorable routs by 37-7, 34-21, 28-10, 34-10, 38-17 and 27-9.

ABC had the misfortune of scheduling Chicago three times (it went 0-3 with an average margin of defeat of 12 points) during a season in which the team was ravaged by injuries, and St. Louis three times during a season in which the Rams were never in it.

The average margin of victory in MNF games this season was 14.2 points, and ABC couldn't even get it right in the playoffs, getting the one noncompetitive game in the bunch when it did Indianapolis-New York Jets on Jan. 4.

With its first Sunday game, does the jinx end? Al Michaels is betting on it.

"It's like a game of five-card stud and we were dealt a 9-7-5-3-2 and there's nothing to draw to," Michaels said. "Something tells me we're going to get dealt a royal flush (for the Super Bowl). In this game, it's really hard to envision one team blowing the other out. It's just set up for a beautiful game on what will be a 75 degree perfect day. I guess that's just the optimist in me."

MI HERMANO: Former USF kicker and current Phoenix Cardinal Bill Gramatica has been added to ESPN's Latin American broadcast team. Gramatica, the brother of Bucs kicker Martin, will do pregame and halftime work, as well as some game analysis for NFL Semanal.

FUNNY MOMENT: At the news conference announcing the halftime entertainment, Shania Twain was asked by a Raiders fan (or a journalist bereft of any objectivity, considering he was wearing a Raiders hat): "How will it feel to perform in front of Raider Nation."

Twain made him repeat his question, and then quizzically shot back: Raider Nation?

In one fell swoop, Twain helped smack down the most overplayed story of the week. Thank you.

EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Channel 13's Charlie Belcher, who distinguished himself this week by crying on camera after the Bucs beat Philadelphia Sunday, stood up at the same news conference, shook a Chucky doll in the air at Twain, and shouted: "Chucky loves you." He then asked (begged?) Twain for a prediction favoring the Bucs.

PICKS: HBO's Inside the NFL filmed its Super Bowl show Wednesday night on Coronado Island, and Tampa Bay was almost a unanimous pick to win Sunday's game.

Dan Marino picked the Bucs 24-17 "and maybe win on a defensive touchdown."

Cris Collinsworth picked the Bucs 28-17, Cris Carter said Tampa Bay 24-20, and Bob Costas was the lone dissenter, picking Oakland 27-24, "maybe in overtime."

Inside the NFL was televised Thursday night, and will be shown again at 7 tonight, at 11 a.m. Saturday and at 8 a.m. Sunday.

POWERING DOWN: According to a Briggs & Stratton/Market Facts national survey, which presented participants with a list of traditional top 10 programs, 25 percent said they would be most angered by a power outage during a Super Bowl game, beating out No. 2 Friends (9 percent) and No. 4 E.R. (7 percent).

A split along gender lines, however, produced a different result: women would be angered most by a Friends outage (14 percent); men picked the Super Bowl at a 41 percent rate.

The rest of the list: Game 7 of the World Series (No. 3), presidential election day coverage (5), Everybody Loves Raymond (6), Oprah (7), Survivor (8), the Academy Awards (9) and Bachelor (10).