ESPN Axes Axthelm Picks Under Pressure : Television: The NFL is barring handicapping in new network contracts. Axthelm’s segment may be moved to another show.

In order to comply with an unprecedented restriction imposed by the National Football League, ESPN has decided to chop Pete Axthelm’s popular segment of picking pro football games against the Las Vegas point spreads from the sports network’s Sunday-morning football show.

The restriction, which the NFL demanded as part of its latest contracts with the five television networks who will collectively pay more than $3.6 billion to the league for the rights to broadcast its games over the next four years, requires that commentators refrain from any mention of the point spreads during football broadcasts or NFL-sanctioned pregame or postgame shows. The point spreads are used in Las Vegas and by illegal bookmakers all over the country to determine winners and losers in wagers on NFL games.

The three broadcast networks--ABC, NBC and CBS--and cable newcomer TNT all agreed to this provision in contracts with the NFL because none of them had any plans to use the spreads on their broadcasts, and therefore considered the point moot. Nonetheless, spokesmen at the networks said that the NFL has never before asked for any such restrictions on the content of the network’s television broadcasts.

ESPN’s Axthelm--known affectionately as “the Ax”--was the only TV commentator who picked games on the air last season. As a regular feature of the network’s “GameDay” program, Axthelm would pick five games against the point spreads. His rate of success was then championed or belittled by his television colleagues later in the day on the Sunday-night football highlight show “PrimeTime.”

The NFL restriction applies only to NFL-licensed programs that the network has purchased the rights to produce, and not to other ESPN programming, said Chris LaPlaca, an ESPN spokesman. The network is therefore mulling over the idea of using Axthelm and his handicapping of games on its regularly scheduled news program, “SportsCenter,” which will air at 8:30 a.m. and lead into “GameDay” each Sunday. A final decision on that is expected by opening day.

This season, which begins Sept. 9, Axthelm will still appear on “GameDay” (West Coast airtime 9 a.m.), but he will be limited to reporting on figures and issues of the game and his caustic commentaries on some of football’s best-known buffoons.

“After a dozen years on the air, the league office made it clear that they didn’t like what I was doing with the spreads,” Axthelm said. “But I don’t think anyone ever suggested that they had censorship rights. Even so, I can still give my opinions on the games. The only reason the spreads are in there is for my accountability.”

“We don’t consider this to be an infringement on our editorial process,” LaPlaca said. “It (gambling on NFL games) is a legal and moral issue that the league is trying to deal with and we certainly respect that. But we still feel that we will be able to present any news or information that is pertinent to our coverage of the league.”

Handicapping games on pregame shows has been a time-honored network tradition. Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder selected games on CBS for years before he was fired for making controversial comments about black athletes. At NBC, both Axthelm and Paul McGuire once chose games against the spread before the network killed the practice a year ago. And one former sports producer said that the recent trend at the networks to offer “insider” segments with experts who provide “the real story” about who is injured and who is inspired for the day’s game, is at least partially aimed at aiding those looking to bet.

Publicly, the NFL has taken a strong stance against gambling, despite the fact that the league can trace at least part of its enormous popularity to the huge number of bets, both legal and illegal, that are placed on NFL games each weekend. The NFL, for example, has protested the use of its games in state lotteries, even asking Congress to ban such practices.

It’s hard to pin down a precise figure on how much money is bet on NFL games annually. Nine years ago, the league estimated that $50 billion was bet per season. Law-enforcement agencies estimated that up to $3 billion was bet on just the 1990 Super Bowl.

The league has faced charges of hypocrisy, however, since at least some of the networks--which to this point have been independent from the NFL, employing their own broadcasters and setting their own editorial agendas--have continued to discuss the point spreads just before gametime. To avoid any guilt by association, the NFL decided to include the restriction against such on-air discussions in its most recent contracts with the TV networks, a league spokesman said.

“We don’t want the appearance that we are cooperating in any way with gambling activities by having the networks turn the pregame shows into a tout sheet,” said Greg Aiello, the NFL’s director of communications. “Gambling is illegal in most parts of the country and that is not the purpose of the games. They are sports entertainment, not gambling vehicles. We want the focus on winning and losing, not on who covers the spreads.”

Aiello said the NFL has no intentions now or in the future to interfere further with the content of the networks’ football broadcasts. “We will not try to impose any other restrictions,” he said. “This was a special circumstance because it involved gambling.”

Don McGuire, senior vice president of Turner Sports, said he has heard cries that the NFL is infringing on the networks’ First Amendment rights of free speech, but he dismisses such accusations outright. He said this restriction in the contract is just another business term that the TV networks were free to accept or reject.

McGuire contends that television’s agreeing to the restriction would not open the door to further content restrictions from the NFL in future contracts. In the past, the TV networks have been free to report news that reflected badly on the NFL, such as the Baltimore Colts slinking away to Indianapolis in the middle of the night or drug use in the league.

“If they try to restrict something else, I can negotiate it with them,” said McGuire, whose TNT will broadcast nine NFL games this season. “If they stand hard, I am free to reject the contract, and the NFL has got to understand that it will be jeopardizing a lot of money (from television) if they insist on something like that.”