MADDEN TIME--GRATING TASTE? NO, TOO FILLING

CBS Sports kicks off its NFL preseason coverage in prime time today with the Dallas Cowboys-San Diego Chargers game at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. But you won’t find it on local stations.

The Chargers failed to sell out, so that means a TV blackout for the Southland. KCBS-TV Channel 2 had to drop live coverage of the game because cable viewers in San Diego can pick up the Channel 2 signal. So Los Angeles viewers lose out too . . . at least until Sunday morning when Channel 2 carries the game on tape replay starting at 10:30 a.m.

Teams may experiment with rookies in preseason games as they prepare for the regular season, but for the networks, the regular season is now , as they continually try to top each other in the Nielsen ratings. CBS’ first-string broadcast team of Pat Summerall and John Madden already is on duty. So it’s a good time to ask:

Is anyone else out there SICK AND TIRED of John Madden?

The burly former Raiders coach began his CBS broadcasting career as a refreshing burst of color on the football analysis scene. Talked loud. Talked sort of funny. Talked . . . and talked . . . and talked. He and the colorless Summerall made a good team.

As Madden’s popularity grew, however, so did his celebrity and visibility, to the point that he now seems to be everywhere: hosting his own sports interview specials on CBS and starring in infinite Lite beer commercials as Mad Man Madden, the human tornado who blows his stack and walks through doors and walls. Ho ho ho.

Enough already!

Madden is now so transfixed in sports viewers’ minds that he is a one-man cross-promotion. When you see him advertising beer, you think of CBS Sports; when you hear him on a football telecast, you think of beer.

You may also think of switching channels.

Madden has turned gimmickry into a fat paycheck, and more power to him. But gimmicks don’t last forever, and Madden is now grossly overexposed, suffering first-degree burns from the TV lights.

According to industry gossip, he was the first choice of ABC Sports this year to replace Don Meredith in the broadcast booth for “Monday Night Football,” which makes its preseason debut this very next Monday at 6 p.m. (Channels 7, 3, 10, 42) with the San Francisco 49ers versus the Denver Broncos.

The job instead went to Joe Namath, someone as low-key as Madden is high-key. Namath (see interview with him on page one) may not be the electrifying catalyst ABC is seeking to reverse the ratings slide of its prime-time NFL telecasts, but he made an impressive debut on the network’s recent telecast of pro football’s annual Hall of Fame game.

It was a perfect game for Namath’s premiere. It was slow, and nothing was at stake. He provided no jokes to alleviate the tedium and, thankfully, offered none of the combativeness that characterized Howard Cosell.

The last thing anyone needs is for Namath and his co-analyst, O. J. Simpson, to engage in contrived verbal jousts, with each of these former great athletes denigrating the football abilities of the other in an attempt to spice up the telecasts. Instead, Namath merely relied on his good homework, was articulate and, in fact, added far more to the telecast than did the more-experienced Simpson.

What’s more, he didn’t have to walk through a wall to get your attention.