It's All About Football With Theismann Back in NFL Booth

Just in time for the holidays, Joe Theismann got his pick-up order from the Island of Misfit Toys.

Theismann, cast into announcer oblivion two years ago by ESPN, is returning to an NFL booth next month, when NBC carries a wild-card playoff doubleheader on the first Saturday of the postseason.

Theismann, who will be teamed with Joe Gibbs, his former head coach with the Washington Redskins, along with Tom Hammond, admits he's had a "little chuckle" at what "Monday Night Football" has become this season.

You see, when Theismann, who quarterbacked the Redskins to a win in Super Bowl XVII (or 17 for the Roman numerically challenged), was cut loose for Ron Jaworski, he was told that he talked too much football.

So, what are "MNF" viewers getting this season with Jaworski, Mike Tirico and former Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden? You guessed it: a pretty serious dose of football.

"I don't look at it ("Monday Night Football") as vindication or satisfaction," Theismann said. "I look at it as the presentation of a football game. I enjoy it for what it is. I don't think about what it was."

"I just chuckle a little bit. They're really doing a great job presenting football. That's what I had hoped I had tried to accomplish when I was working there."

Indeed, Theismann and play-by-play partner Mike Patrick did a splendid job during 18 seasons together on ESPN's Sunday night package.

Their longtime producer, Fred Gaudelli, who works NBC's Sunday night games, no doubt, remembered Theismann's efforts when NBC was looking for a second group to call wild-card games, along with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.

Actually, Theismann hasn't completely dropped out of sight, at least not for football fans, as he appears each week with Brian Baldinger and Sterling Sharpe on the NFL Network's "Playbook."

One guy who likely wishes Theismann had remained in obscurity is Gibbs, or so the former quarterback believes.

"I guarantee Joe is having more trepidation than I am," Theismann laughed. "He couldn't shut me up when he had me (as a player). Now, he doesn't have the control. That's the thing he's looking at.

"When I played for Joe, in the six years I played for him, it was Joe said this and I did what he said. Now, we're going to get an opportunity to sit in the booth and he's forced to listen to me. He's got to be sitting down in North Carolina thinking, 'What have I got myself into?' ''

Weekend Watch

Not every television suggested/dictated move is a bad one. To wit: the shift by CBS of the Army-Navy football game out of last week's collision course of conference championship contests. The annual meeting between the service academies shouldn't have to jostle with other games for attention, and moving it a week later accomplishes that goal.

Beyond pageantry and military bragging rights, there actually is something at stake in this game. If Army can break a seven-game losing streak to Navy, it will get to 6-6 and earn a berth in the EagleBank Bowl in Washington later this month. CBS' lead college football team of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson will have the call at 2:30 PM ET Saturday.

ESPN's telecast of the Heisman Trophy presentation airs at 8 PM ET Saturday to be followed by the latest documentary in their "30 in 30" series, a historical look at the football program at the University of Miami.

A better use of a documentary would be an exploration of how votes are cast in college football, from the process used to determine the Heisman winner to the procedures in place to select the participants in the Bowl Championship Series title game. But, then, who really wants to see how the sausage is made, right?

Fox Flubs

If the folks who run FOX Sports Radio were smart, they'd have realized that the best possible replacement for morning drive guy Steve Czaban was on the air this morning.

Chris Moore, one of a number of talented expatriates from ESPN Radio, is a rarity in sports talk radio. Namely, he's a bright and funny guy with interesting things to say who doesn't insult the intelligence of his listeners.

Moore has been a utility guy at FOX, heard all over the weekend schedule, but he deserved a shot at the big time of the weekday, provided he wanted to get up at an ungodly hour each day.

Instead, FOX went for the lowest common denominator, hiring professional blowhard Stephen A. Smith for the gig. How many times can you press the snooze bar once you hear that voice?

Fresh View Needed

Before we all breathe a sigh of relief now that the creep who stalked ESPN reporter Erin Andrews will apparently plead guilty next week in Los Angeles, it would be helpful to remember an essential truth.

Michael Barrett acted alone in violating Andrews' privacy, but until television executives, producers and directors and fans develop a more enlightened attitude about how we view women, especially in the context of sports broadcasts, Andrews may not be the last female sportscaster to be demeaned in that manner.

'60 Minutes' Technically Foul

Goodness knows no one should ever seriously turn to former college basketball analyst Billy Packer for much of anything, much less tips on broadcast journalism.

But, while "60 Minutes" isn't the cancer Packer once claimed it was, the venerable news program stumbled badly with Sunday's piece on disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy.

The story -- broken into two segments -- offered nothing new, but instead gave Donaghy more than 20 minutes of fairly highly rated network air time to speak with hardly a word of contradiction.

Reporter Bob Simon, a brilliant foreign correspondent, was completely ill-suited to challenge Donaghy on anything substantive, and appeared entirely out of his element. In retrospect, the program would have been far better served if Armen Keteyian, a former CBS Sports reporter, now a CBS News investigative reporter, had been brought in to grill Donaghy.

Simon didn't reveal to the audience that Donaghy had written a book -- the promotion of which was undoubtedly the reason for his appearance -- until well into the second segment. And, surprise, surprise, the story's title, "Personal Foul," just happened to share the book's title.

Don Hewitt, "60 Minutes" creator, once said the show's credo could be distilled in four words: "Tell me a story." Hewitt's program failed miserably at that task Sunday night.