'TIS MADDEN-INC...

JOHN MADDEN IS Jundeniably the greatest TV football analyst on Planet Earth and he has the loving cups and paychecks to prove it.

We have known him since he was an assistant line coach with the Oakland Raiders, and he remains pretty much the same sort of guy: sharp, amusing, a people person, and extremely politic. He never rushes in where angels fear to tread, and so manages to avoid controversy.

That is why he surprised us by taking a position on the controversy involving his major competition -- Monday Night Football. By now, it is generally conceded that MNF laid an egg in adding a third man to the booth -- a non-football man whose job it is to boost the show's ratings by being Funny.

The suits responsible for this dreadful premise failed to understand that their show did not need comedians; it needed good games.

John Madden sent the suits to the cleaners for their conception of foot ball as entertainment. By hiring a comedian, they were implying that football isn't exciting enough to create interest and passion for the game; and that it needed a vaudeville turn to elevate the ratings.

Madden violently disagreed with that premise, and he was absolutely right. Humor is perfectly okay when it is indigenous to both the game and the announcer. It becomes pathetic when it is tossed into the mix in the form of one-liners and esoteric witticisms that 98 percent of the audience finds bewildering.

Of course, the great advantage that Madden enjoys over his competition is that he carries his own comedian around with him -- a droll fellow by the name of John Madden.