It Takes a Truckload of Talent

SAN DIEGO — On media day this week, between sessions with Raider and Buccaneer players and coaches, ABC held a news conference, although there were no formal speeches. Reporters were simply invited to talk to ABC personnel.

Tables were set up around the Club Lounge at Qualcomm Stadium, and each table had a name tag so reporters would be able to recognize John Madden, Al Michaels and Melissa Stark. The crowd around the table bearing Madden’s name was about the size of the one around the podium where Warren Sapp was sitting a couple of hours earlier. And that was before Madden arrived.

Meanwhile, Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff sat at a table where there was no crowd. At times, there was no one.

Maybe Gaudelli and Esocoff aren’t well-enough known to draw a horde of reporters. But they’re certainly important enough.

Gaudelli will produce Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast and Esocoff will direct it. Without them, there would be no pictures.

Gaudelli is in his second year as the producer of “Monday Night Football,” having replaced Don Ohlmeyer after his one-year stint. Esocoff is in his third year as the director.

“These guys bring a lot of energy to the show,” Michaels said. “They’re going to be around for a lot of years.”

Gaudelli explains the roles of a sports producer and director this way: “To put it in football terms, I’m the head coach and Drew is the quarterback. I come up with the game plan, and Drew executes it.”

The producer is in charge of the overall look of the telecast -- the story lines, the replay packages and so forth. One thing Gaudelli did this week was get permission from the NFL for Tampa Bay’s John Lynch and Oakland’s Jerry Rice to wear tiny microphones for replays. Never before have players worn microphones during a Super Bowl.

Game day is when Esocoff gets busy. The director’s main function is to select the shots that go out live over the air. He chooses those shots from 40 monitors in the production truck.

“I really only have to keep track of about 30, but that’s still too many to watch at one time,” Esocoff said. “But I have plenty of help, and I welcome it.”

Gaudelli also will be in the truck, along with about 10 other production assistants and technical people. The total of 12 is about five more than for a regular Monday night game. But then this is the Super Bowl.

During Ohlmeyer’s first stint on “Monday Night Football,” in the 1970s and ‘80s when Chet Forte was the director and Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford were in the booth, there were sometimes more than 12 people in the production truck.

Gaudelli and Esocoff aren’t quite as colorful as Ohlmeyer and Forte were. If they were, they might get more media attention. But that’s OK with them. These two longtime friends are just thrilled to be producing and directing a Super Bowl.

The Other Side

The last time Michael Irvin was at a Super Bowl media day, in 1996, he was wearing a Dallas Cowboy jersey and was barraged with questions. At this week’s media day he was dressed in regular clothes -- if you can call what Irvin wears “regular” -- and was still barraged with questions.

He was there as a reporter for Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” and was sought out for one interview after another. “I’m supposed to be here doing interviews, not giving them,” he said.

A Different Keyshawn

The nation knows Keyshawn Johnson as the brash wide receiver for the Buccaneers. ESPN reporter Shelley Smith knows him as a former baby sitter for her daughter Dylann, who is now 16.

When Johnson was a student at Dorsey High, Smith came to the school to do a story on gangs and sports for Sports Illustrated, her employer at the time. A friendship developed, and Smith took a special interest in the young man. She attended his football games at West L.A. College before he transferred to USC, and Johnson in turn would at times baby-sit Dylann.

“He’s the only baby sitter Dylann ever had to make it to the Super Bowl,” Smith said.

Super Bowl Notes

There are two pre-Super Bowl programs you don’t want to miss: One is NFL Films’ “Road to the Super Bowl” on Channel 7 Saturday at 3 p.m. The other is “Season on the Bus: John Madden’s ‘Monday Night Football’ Experience” on Channel 7 Saturday at 4 p.m. ... On Sunday, ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” begins at 8 a.m. and ABC’s four-hour pregame show begins at 11.

Westwood One/CBS Radio’s pregame show will begin at 2 p.m., highlighted by Jim Gray’s taped round-table discussion with Curt Gowdy, Pat Summerall, Dick Enberg and Michaels. Those four have done the play-by-play on 34 of the 36 previous Super Bowls.... Gray will have an interview with Commissioner Paul Tagliabue at halftime.... Calling the game on radio will be Marv Albert, working his first Super Bowl, and Boomer Esiason.... KNX (1070) and XTRA (690 only) will carry the radio coverage.

Handling the Super Bowl public-address announcing chores for the 10th year in a row will be Paul Olden, a 1972 graduate of Dorsey High. Olden gets paid only $800, but he’s not complaining. “I get an expense-paid trip to the Super Bowl,” he said.

The Super Bowl is being televised in 220 countries in 28 languages.... In the U.S., ABC’s coverage also is being televised in high definition TV. ABC also is providing a Spanish-language telecast through secondary audio programming (SAP).

Short Waves

To promote its Saturday night boxing show at Temecula, HBO had 100,000 pizzas delivered to customers’ homes in New York and Los Angeles with Vernon Forrest’s picture on the box. Forrest faces Ricardo Mayorga in the main event.... “Toughmaniacs,” an offshoot of the “Toughman” series on FX, premieres on DirecTV and In Demand as a pay-per-view event Saturday at 6 p.m. Announcers include Eric “Butterbean” Esch and “Hardbody Harrison.” The suggested retail price is $14.95.

Nice to see former USC coach George Raveling featured on TNT on Martin Luther King Day, telling the amazing story about how he ended up in possession of the original copy of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was an excellent piece by Jim Huber.... Time Warner Cable in the South Bay mistakenly blacked out the first quarter of Monday’s Laker-Clipper game.... Larry Robinson will be a special guest on Fox Sport Net during the King-New Jersey Devil game Saturday night. Robinson coached both teams.

In radio news, Roger Lodge will begin doing a 5:30-to-9 a.m. show for KMPC (1540) on Feb. 10. James Brown’s Sporting News network show will be moved to noon-2 p.m. and aired on a delayed basis. It will preempt Tim Brando’s network show.

In Closing

Wonder what Madden, Bob Uecker and others who did the “Tastes Great-Less Filling” Miller Lite commercials in the 1970s and ‘80s think about the new one featuring two women engaging in fisticuffs and mud wrestling? Jay Leno cracked that there have been hundreds of thousands of complaints about the ad, but none from men.