Madden: There’s Only One Super Bowl

It could be argued that the real Super Bowl is this weekend’s NFC championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.

“This is the game everybody has wanted to see--the two teams with the best records meeting in a championship game,” said John Madden, who will work Sunday’s game at Candlestick Park for CBS.

However, when asked if he could watch only one game, which would he watch--the NFC title game or the Super Bowl?--Madden didn’t hesitate.

“The Super Bowl,” he said, despite its being an NBC event this year.

“It is the championship game, the culmination of the season. Sure, you can say, ‘But we don’t have the Super Bowl.’ But all that’s a bunch of baloney.”

You have to like Madden’s honesty.

Madden was a rookie commentator with CBS when, in 1982, the Cowboys and 49ers last met in a title game.

He worked the Super Bowl that year, when the 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, but he did not work the NFC title game, which the 49ers won on Joe Montana’s pass to Dwight Clark.

Vin Scully and Hank Stram were assigned to the Cowboy-49er matchup.

That turned out to be a plum assignment, but it didn’t go over very well when Scully got the word earlier in the season that he would be working the NFC title game instead of the Super Bowl.

At the start of the season, the brass at CBS Sports decided to pair newcomer Madden with Scully and Stram with Pat Summerall for four weeks, then have them switch partners.

After eight weeks, it was decided that Summerall and Madden would be the No. 1 team.

Terry O’Neil, executive producer of NBC Sports, who was then at CBS, was selected to break the news to Scully.

“Vin, I have good news,” O’Neil said he told Scully on the phone. “You’re going to be working two postseason games--a divisional playoff and the NFC championship. Your partner for the second half of the season is going to be Hank Stram.”

In his book, “The Game Behind the Game,” O’Neil wrote about that conversation.

“Even as I was hearing myself say the words, I knew how wrong they were. Scully was spitting mad.

“Some months later, he would depart for NBC, turning down a reported 10-year, $7-million offer from CBS. On his way out the door, Scully told CBS corporate management that the Super Bowl disappointment was the largest factor, but another reason was the ‘good news’ phone call from Terry O’Neil.”

Ratings winner: That 1982 NFC title game drew a 42.9 national rating and a 62% share of the audience, making it the highest-rated sporting event, other than a Super Bowl. It would rank 14th among Super Bowls.

As one might expect, Madden wouldn’t mind if it is raining at Candlestick Sunday. He says battling the elements is simply part of football.

What bothers Madden is the sight of umbrellas at games.

“Opening up an umbrella at a football game is the most thoughtless thing in the world,” he said. “You not only block the view of the person behind you, you also knocked the person next to you off his axis.”

The AFC hasn’t produced a Super Bowl winner since the Raiders won in 1984, and Madden says he knows why.

“The AFC got all those good quarterbacks in 1983--Jim Kelly, John Elway and Dan Marino were three of them--and it became a passing league,” he said. “The NFC had to rely on running backs and tough defense.”

NBC commentator Bob Trumpy, who will work Sunday’s AFC title game between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins in Miami and also the Super Bowl in Pasadena with Dick Enberg, likes the AFC’s chances this year.

Trumpy points to two factors--Buffalo beat the 49ers, 34-31, in Week 2 of the regular season, and Miami’s Dan Marino is the most experienced quarterback in the tournament.

Said NBC colleague O.J. Simpson: “I don’t think Miami would be favored, but I’ve got to think Buffalo would at least be a ‘pick-’em.’ ”

Simpson said his former team, the Bills, has as much talent as any, “but sometimes they’re not focused.”

He added: “This team has a lot of different personalities, and you’re never quite sure which team is going to show up. When the Bills are focused and ready to play, they are an awfully tough football team.”

Simpson, who worked both AFC playoff games as a sideline reporter last weekend, stayed in Miami this week, although Thursday he went to Buffalo to tape a feature on the Bills.

Simpson said the feeling earlier in the week among the Dolphins was that they wouldn’t have any advantage if Frank Reich was the Bills’ starting quarterback.

“The thinking is, they have a better shot with Jim Kelly in there at less than 100%,” Simpson said.

The Bills’ quarterback situation wasn’t the hot topic in Miami this week. According to Simpson, it was the excessive sideline celebration staged by the Dolphins’ Louis Oliver during last weekend’s victory over San Diego.

Simpson said Coach Don Shula came down pretty hard on Oliver for his antics.

On the subject of excessive celebrating, Simpson said, “I think you have to blame us (television) to some extent. We’re the ones who put a camera on these guys.”

TV-Radio Notes

If San Diego had beaten Miami and advanced to the AFC title game, there would have been two West Coast games Sunday. The tentative plan was for NBC to show the AFC game sometime after the 1 p.m. NFC game, probably 5 p.m. . . . John Elway will be NBC’s guest analyst in the studio for Sunday’s AFC championship game. . . . XTRA’s halftime guest during last Sunday’s Dolphin-Charger broadcast was, of all people, Jimmy Connors. . . . Howard David will work Sunday’s AFC radio broadcast with John Dockery, and Jack Buck and Hank Stram will call the NFC game. . . . Stram’s television partner for the 1982 NFC title game, Vin Scully, is in Honolulu working the Hawaiian Open for TBS, which has live coverage through Sunday at 5 p.m. each day.

Recommended viewing: ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” beginning its 33rd year, focuses on the Harlem Globetrotters on Saturday. This segment is a lot more than simply the Globetrotters doing their thing against the Washington Generals in a game at Crenshaw High on Dec. 18. It takes a look at what is going on in South-Central Los Angeles. “It’s a very uplifting, positive piece,” producer Carol Lehti said. “I got to meet and deal with some very nice people.” Crenshaw student Kofi Nartey serves as a guest host with John Saunders and Dick Vitale; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes part, playing with the Generals; Crenshaw graduate Darryl Strawberry and his older brother, Michael, a Los Angeles police office, are featured, and there’s a light “White Men Can’t Jump” piece with Vitale, taped at Venice Beach. The Community Youth Gang Services and its Midnight Basketball League also get some air time, as do members from rival gangs.

Billy Sample, hired this week to work with Bob Starr on KMPC’s Angel radio broadcasts, was an outfielder for the Texas Rangers from 1978 through ’84 and spent ’85 with the New York Yankees and ’86 with the Atlanta Braves. He worked for TBS in 1988 and ‘89, did some ESPN work in ’91 and last season worked as a commentator on 25 Seattle Mariners telecasts. He also did a few games for CBS Radio. Sample had his choice of jobs this year--either 65 Mariner telecasts or the Angels’ broadcasts full time. He said he liked the play-by-play aspect of the Angel job.

“The Backstretch,” the weekly horse racing news and handicapping show, returns for a 14-week run on Channel 56 tonight at 8:30. Jeff Siegel and Mandy McKaughan are the co-hosts. . . . HBO’s first fight, on Jan. 22, 1973, was George Foreman’s second-round knockout of Joe Frazier at Kingston, Jamaica, possibly best remembered for Howard Cosell’s call, “Down goes Frazier.” Now, 20 years later, Foreman, 40 pounds heavier, is still fighting on HBO. His bout with Pierre Coetzer will be televised live from Reno at 7 p.m. Saturday. . . . If there is a national college football championship game after the 1994 season, as proposed, don’t be surprised if it ends up on pay-per-view. . . . Prime Ticket’s Larry Burnett sang the National Anthem at last Friday’s Laker game. Gutsy effort, but Burnett had better stick to sportscasting.

Golden Mike winners for sports, presented by the Radio and Television News Assn. of Southern California, included Channel 9’s Tom Murray, who won two; Channel 2’s Jim Hill, who won one; and, on the radio side, KFWB’s Randy Kerdoon, who swept the awards for best sports segment, best sports news reporting and best feature reporting. Kerdoon is also among the nominees for a Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn. award in the radio anchor category. His competition is KMPC’s Jim Healy and KNX’s Bill Seward. Winners in that category and six others will be announced at a luncheon at Lakeside Golf Course on Feb. 11. . . . Cable television’s ACE Awards will be presented Sunday night in a ceremony at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. It will be televised live at 5 p.m. on the Lifetime network. ESPN received a record 23 nominations. HBO has six nominations.