HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, heard, observed, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

What: “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”

Where: HBO, tonight, 10.

Marcus Dixon, a high school football star in Rome, Ga., expected to be playing at Vanderbilt this season. He had been offered a full scholarship. Instead, the 6-foot-6 defensive end is in a Georgia state penitentiary, serving a minimum of 10 years after having been convicted of statutory rape and aggravated child molestation.

Gumbel reports on this gripping story. Dixon was 18 when he was accused by a 15-year-old student of raping her in a high school classroom. Dixon maintained throughout the trial that the sex was consensual.

The severity of the sentence shocked many involved in the case, among them several jurors who had found Dixon not guilty of the more serious charges of forcible rape, false imprisonment, sexual battery and aggravated assault.

Interviews are shown of Dixon and his parents as well as prosecutor John McClellan, who maintains that justice was served.

In a much lighter feature, Mary Carillo ventured to Glendive, Mont., (pop. 5,000), to interview 66-year-old sportscaster Ed Agre. Actually, Agre is also a news reporter, anchorman, producer and writer. He is a one-man news department at KXGN-TV in Glendive, which ranks 210th of 210 Nielsen television markets in the U.S.

Agre and his video camera routinely travel up to 100 miles to cover high school football games. He points out that his nightly half-hour, one-man newscasts have a personal touch. He announces the school-lunch menus and sings “Happy Birthday” to viewers.

“What happens to the show if you get sick?” Carillo asks.

“Then we have no news,” Agre replies.

-- Larry Stewart