BROADWAY JOE BOWS IN THE BOOTH

The New York Giants vs. the Houston Oilers? That promises to be a real yawner, two teams that no one cares about playing a game that no one cares about.

There is one factor, though, that adds juice to today’s AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game on ABC (11:30 a.m., Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42).

Joe Namath.

Today is the day that Namath, 42, the gifted former quarterback, will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Even more significant for TV sports fans, it is also the day he will be inducted into ABC Sports.

The day marks Namath’s debut as third member of the broadcast team (with Frank Gifford and O. J. Simpson) that will be in the booth for ABC’s “Monday Night Football” this season. He succeeds Don Meredith, the “Monday Night Football” charter member whose parting from ABC was described as mutually desired.

ABC is clearly counting on Namath to provide some of the glamour that “Monday Night Football” has lacked for the last several seasons.

With good-old-boy Meredith and infuriating Howard Cosell now on the sidelines, Namath will have his work cut out for him. Who will provide the sparks?

Namath, who became an actor after retiring from football, has a low-key personality, but had great charisma on the field. Can Broadway Joe become Ratings Joe? It remains to be seen if he can transfer that on-field magnetism to a broadcast booth whose other occupants, Gifford and Simpson, are essentially bland.

Not that any sportscaster could necessarily make a difference.

“Monday Night Football” ratings slid last season when ABC suffered through clunker after clunker, a problem the network hopes to rectify. In the end, good games, not good announcers, are what draw sports fans to TV.