Action Doesn’t Start at Kickoff

Before the Super Bowl begins Sunday, there’s all the pregame programming to sort through.

Figuring out what to watch is no easy task.

A few tips:

--At the top of the list is “Road to the Super Bowl” on Channel 11 Saturday at 1 p.m. Steve Sabol and his staff at NFL Films sorted through 500 miles of football footage from this season to put together a show that is, well, NFL Films quality, which says it all.

--TNT has expanded its “Super Bowl Saturday Night” to three separate segments called “Super Bowl Television.”

The segments are “Super Bowl Insider” tonight from 7:30-9:30, “Super Bowl Awards” Saturday from 7-9 p.m., and “The Super Bowl Tailgate Party” Sunday from 11 a.m.-noon.

Fred Hickman will serve as host of the segments. Guests include Boomer Esiason, Jim Kelly and Warren Moon.

--ABC’s two-hour pregame show begins Sunday at 1 p.m., with Brent Musburger serving as host. The supporting cast includes Dick Vermeil, Bob Griese, Lynn Swann, Lesley Visser, Esiason and Peter King.

The theme, not exactly original, is “the world getting ready to watch the Super Bowl.” Remotes include one from a research station in Antarctica.

Featured players include Steve Young and Deion Sanders of the San Francisco 49ers and Junior Seau of the San Diego Chargers. Swann also will do a piece on the lack of respect for the Chargers.

ABC also should have found time to do a piece on the Chargers’ Mark Seay. The story of heroism by the former Long Beach State receiver, who took a bullet to save his 3-year-old niece, and his subsequent battle to continue to play football with the bullet lodged near his heart is well known in Southern California but not nationally.

--ESPN, which assigned 25 reporters and commentators to the Super Bowl, will have a special edition of “NFL Prime Monday” on Saturday at 5-6:30 p.m., with analysts Ron Jaworski, Joe Theismann and Phil Simms joining host Mike Tirico.

--ESPN will have a special 90-minute edition of “NFL GameDay” Sunday at 9 a.m.

--HBO’s outstanding Thursday night show, “Inside the NFL,” which is always repeated at 7 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday, had Don Shula and Neil O’Donnell joining Len Dawson, Nick Buoniconti and Cris Collinsworth for this week’s Super Bowl special.

--CNN’s “NFL Preview,” with Bob Lorenz and James Lofton, will run at its usual time of Sunday at 8:30 a.m.

That’s not all of the pregame programming, but it’s certainly enough to prepare you for Sunday’s game.

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Programming snafu: One Super Bowl-related program you probably will miss--unless you set your VCR--is a special edition of NFL Films’ weekly “This Is the NFL.” The series finished the season with a look at Joe Namath, whom NFL Films calls “the greatest star in the NFL’s 75-year history.”

The problem is, in Los Angeles, this show will be shown by Channel 11 at 1 a.m. Monday. Surely, the station could have moved an infomercial or WWF Wrestling to put this show on at a more reasonable hour.

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The Chargers’ irrepressible radio play-by-play announcer, Lee Hamilton, is a little bit excited about Sunday’s game.

“Sunday will be the biggest day in my life, outside of the day I was married and the days my sons (Kelly, 8, and Scott, 5) were born,” he said. “It will be the pinnacle of my professional career.

“Four years ago, when the Chargers were 0-4, someone put a ‘For Sale’ sign in front of my house. They were telling me to get out of town. Now we’re announcing the Super Bowl.

“At some point Sunday, I’ll look up to the skies and let my father know this one is for him.”

Hamilton said his father, Paul Mahon, who died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 61, was a minor league baseball player in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

“He never made it to the show (the majors), but I have,” Hamilton said. “He’d be proud.”

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Add Hamilton: This is his eighth season with the Chargers. He worked in Phoenix for seven years, doing Arizona State sports before going to San Diego. His radio career began in 1968 in Utica, N.Y., where he did play by play for the Mohawk Valley Comets of the Eastern Hockey League.

Hamilton said he was unable to enjoy the Chargers’ victory over Pittsburgh for the AFC championship because of the death of his best friend, Jim Peterson, 36, of Fullerton, whom he had worked with at radio station KTAR in Phoenix.

Hamilton said Peterson, a pitching star at Arizona State who played in the Dodger organization, died of mouth cancer that was caused by chewing tobacco.

“I got the news that morning,” he said, “and was pretty numb the rest of the day.”

TV-Radio Notes

Recommended viewing: The sad story of former Houston pitcher J.R. Richard, who recently was found living under a Houston freeway, will be told by Prime Sports’ “Press Box” on Sunday’s one-hour weekend edition, “The Big Box,” which is on at 7 p.m. and again at 10. After the story was broken last week by Houston Post columnist Kenny Hand, “Press Box” executive producer Tom Reilly assigned Bay Area free-lance reporter Carolyn Burns, a former anchor for ESPN, and field producer Cameron Penn to go to Houston and find Richard. “When we talked to him, he had $6 to his name,” Reilly said. . . . On the regular weekday edition of “Press Box” Monday at 6:30 and 10:30 p.m., former NBA player Reggie Theus, who works part time for Prime, interviews Dennis Rodman.

Basketball galore: It’s a big football weekend, but there’s also plenty of basketball. Channel 9 televises a basketball tripleheader Saturday, beginning at 12:30 p.m. with the Lakers at Seattle, followed by California-UCLA at 3 p.m. and Stanford-USC at 5 p.m. . . . In case anyone is interested, the Clippers’ game at Washington is on Channel 13 at 4:30 p.m. . . . One bright spot for the Clippers this season has been the radio work of newcomer Rory Markus.

The new pay-cable Golf Channel, which went on the air Jan. 17, is off to an impressive start. The overall look and programming are first rate. . . . Byron Nelson does a rare interview on the Golf Channel’s “Golf Talk, Live” Monday. The show usually will run from 5-6 p.m. but was expanded one hour to include the Nelson interview. . . . The Senior Skins Game from Mauna Lani on the big island of Hawaii, with Ray Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino competing, will be televised by ABC Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. The announcers will be Vin Scully and Mark Rolfing.

The Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn.’s big event, its annual awards luncheon, will be held next Wednesday at Lakeside Golf Course in Toluca Lake. Among those being honored will be Ronald Reagan, although he will not be present. The event is open to the public (at $50 a ticket). . . . It’s hard to get away from the Super Bowl this weekend. A case in point is the pay-per-view boxing show from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Saturday night at 6, featuring the Ruelas brothers, Gabriel and Rafael, in separate title bouts. During the show, a panel of experts will examine the different types of Super Bowl wagers.