Peete Enjoying His ‘Best’ Job

It’s a good time to be USC’s quarterback, as Rodney Peete, a former USC quarterback, found out. And it’s not a bad time to be Peete, either.

Peete, now a regular on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” hung out with Matt Leinart on campus last Friday.

They were shooting a segment that will be a part of tonight’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” episode. It will be televised on FSN West at 9 and 11:30.

“I had a great time when I was at USC and got a lot of attention, but I never went through anything like what Matt goes through on a daily basis,” Peete said. “There are mobs of people just lingering around on campus, trying to get an autograph.

“He has to have professional bodyguards. I had my roommate, 270-pound tight end Martin Chesley, and a few offensive linemen hanging around me, but what I went through and what Matt is going through isn’t even close.

“And Matt just wants to be a regular guy. I think he’s embarrassed by it all.”

Peete and the rest of the FSN show’s cast -- Chris Rose, John Salley and Rob Dibble, plus Petros Papadakis -- will be on the USC campus today to tape the rest of tonight’s show.

Pete Carroll, Frank Gifford and Charles White will be among the show’s guests.

Peete had a 16-year NFL career, playing for six teams, then retired after last season. He joined the cast of “BDSSP” “in April.

“I don’t think I could have asked for a better broadcasting job,” he said. “If I were a football commentator, I could only comment on certain things. With this job, I can express myself on a variety of sports and life in general. It’s been great.”

So has Peete’s life. He and wife Holly Robinson Peete have four sons -- twins Rodney and Ryan, 7; Robinson, 3, and Roman, 6 months. Holly, an actress, stars in a new UPN series, “Love Inc.,” which makes its debut Thursday night at 9:30 on Channel 13. She has also written a recently published football book, “Get Your Own Damn Beer, I’m Watching the Game.”

“I retired from the NFL with all my body parts intact, I’ve got a great job and a great family,” Peete said. “I guess you couldn’t ask for much more.”

Well, maybe another national championship for his alma mater.

Donahue Resurfaces

Terry Donahue, who spent three years as a college football commentator with CBS after retiring in 1995 as the Pacific 10’s winningest coach ever, has returned to broadcasting.

Donahue, UCLA’s head coach for 20 years, has joined former USC coach John Robinson as a commentator for Larry Kahn’s Sports USA radio network, which provides college and NFL broadcasts to more than 175 stations nationwide.

Donahue and play-by-play announcer Eli Gold will be in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday for the Carolina Panthers’ game against the New England Patriots. Donahue is scheduled to work 12 other NFL games.

Robinson will be paired with Kahn, a former USC play-by-play announcer who over the last seven years has built Sports USA into a formidable network. They will work Oklahoma-UCLA on Saturday, although their broadcast will not be heard in L.A., and the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos on Sunday. That broadcast can be heard on FM 97.1, as can the Patriot-Panther game.

Kahn employs four play-by-play announcers and four commentators, and the pairings vary from week to week.

Donahue, who was the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers until January, said of his new job, “It’s a good opportunity for me to stay involved in the game of football.”

Of his stint with the 49ers, Donahue said, “I tell everybody that my time at the 49ers was a great flight. It was a great flight, except for the landing. People remind me that the landing is part of the flight, and there is some truth to that.”

An Unusual Monday Night

The unprecedented Monday night NFL doubleheader may cause some confusion. The New Orleans Saints and New York Giants will start off on ABC at 4:30 p.m., then switch to ESPN at 6. ABC will then show the regularly scheduled Monday night game, Washington at Dallas.

With ESPN’s regular Sunday night announcing team working Monday’s Saint-Giant game, Mike Tirico will call Sunday night’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders.

At 4:30 p.m. Monday on ESPN will be the taped “People vs. the Pros” golf event in which amateurs, using their handicaps, take on Justin Leonard and Ben Crenshaw in match play.

Short Waves

Sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya will be missing from “Monday Night Football” for a while. Tafoya, expecting to give birth in late October, has decided to take maternity leave earlier than expected.

Filling in will be Samantha Ryan, who normally is a college football sideline reporter. Ryan anchored ABC’s college football coverage from the New York studios last Saturday, and did a fine job.

The Mighty Ducks have hired former player Brent Severyn as a radio commentator. Severyn was with the Ducks during the 1997-98 season and was a television commentator for the Dallas Stars for five years.... OLN announced Thursday that Bill Clement would serve as its studio host for its NHL coverage this season.... ESPN has signed former King coach Barry Melrose to a long-term contract.

In Closing

Before Keith Jackson became “Mr. College Football,” that title belonged to Chris Schenkel, who died Sunday at 82. Jackson, who will call Saturday’s Oklahoma-UCLA game for ABC with Dan Fouts, said of Schenkel: “I liked him a lot. He never did any damage to anybody. He was always helping people. You couldn’t find a more affable or more friendly person.”