I think I have Super Bowl bloat, and the game is 10 days away.
NFL Network has announced plans for more than 100 hours of Super Bowl XLI coverage. The game, matching Indianapolis and Chicago, will be carried on CBS (KCNC-Channel 4), but NFL Network is knocking itself out with 55 hours of live coverage and 60 hours in high definition.
It starts Sunday with the Super Bowl Marathon and a profile of the ninth greatest Super Bowl team of all time.
There are also such riveting moments as the arrival of the teams in Miami, a 3 1/2-hour pregame show (and, remember, this doesn’t count what ESPN and CBS will do on game day), and a behind-the-scenes look at the media center headquarters, sure to be a gut-grabber.
One thing you can bank on. Everyone will keep his or her clothes on. This is the first Super Bowl on CBS since Janet Jackson’s, um, “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004. I hope viewers in the 232 countries (and 24 languages), where the game will be carried won’t be disappointed.
And write this down so you don’t have to call any media outlets, like us, to find out: Kickoff is 4:25 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 4.
Me? I only watch for the commercials.
Baseball in the air
Hang on for a few more snowy days.
FSN Rocky Mountain airs its first Colorado Rockies spring-training game from Tucson on March 1.
FSNRM announced this week it will televise 15 preseason games in addition to 126 regular-season games on its own network and another 24 on KTVD-Channel 20.
The network’s “Rockies Pregame Report” will be carried live outside Coors Field for the home opener on April 2.
Around the dial
The final TV numbers on the two NFL championship games show they were the season’s most-watched programs. The AFC game pitting Indianapolis and New England drew 46.7 million viewers and the New Orleans-Chicago NFC Championship had 43.2 million … ESPN gearing up for its return as home of NASCAR. The network launches “NASCAR Now” on Feb. 5 when the Nextel Cup season opens with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18 on Fox Sports … After seven years together as “Mike & Mike in the Morning” on ESPN Radio, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic make the jump, together, to the play-by-play booth for the upcoming Arena Football League season … ESPN moved Stephen A. Smith’s prickly “Quite Frankly” show, trying to find an audience. Now it’s dead. Smith will be absorbed as an analyst on various other ESPN properties … Quotable: “Football is an honest game. It’s true to life. It’s a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life.” Joe Namath
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
