A LONG DAY'S NIGHT INTO NBC NOWHERE.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

It's no wonder Olympic athletes these days are older and older. The younger ones aren't awake to become inspired any more. Unless they have insomnia.

Stacy Dragila just won the first women's Olympic pole vault competition, smiled into NBC's camera and called it ``a dream come true.''

``And,'' she continued, ``all you girls who want to pole vault, go for it!''

This was shown at 10:30 p.m. Monday night.

On Saturday night, just before Marion Jones ran the 100-meter sprint to what would be her first gold medal, NBC ran (another) on Jones, in which she talked in glowing terms about how as a little girl she watched the 1984 Games from Los Angeles. She saw how emotional Florence Griffith Joyner and Carl Lewis were after winning their gold medals. It inspired her.

Then NBC showed Jones' race. At 11:15 p.m.

At 11:45 p.m., it showed Maurice Greene's 100-meter victory.

Every night of the gymnastics events during the first week didn't air until well past 9:30 p.m. even though, in Sydney time when they were originally held, they didn't come close to 11 p.m. finishes.

Michael Johnson's 400-meter gold-medal run - try 11:15 p.m. Monday on NBC. He ran it at about 8:20 p.m. Sydney time.

And the gold-medal ceremony for the U.S. baseball team after it defeated Cuba? NBC aired it Wednesday night at about midnight, after showing a brief highlight package of it at about 10:45 p.m.

It's one thing to show something delayed. And, as we grind our teeth each night, we try to understand NBC's restraints with this unusual time difference. But it has tried our patience once too many times.

We're cranky. And we're not watching any more.

This pattern for NBC to delay coverage of the bigger events more, hoping to keep the audience awake just another hour of ratings time, was simply rude. What happened to the family hour? That's what NBC bigwig Dick Ebersol said was the reason the Olympics worked like magic in prime time. They brought families together.

My two kids, aged 13 and 9, were fast asleep by the time all those things took place above. Something about having to go to school the next day.

Thanks again, NBC, for shattering the dreams of the Olympic experience while the kids are dreaming of something else.

--Watson's journey: He flew 13 hours and 9,000 miles from Sydney to Los Angeles on Wednesday to get home in time to do a high school football game Thursday night.

Because that's Jim Watson's gig and he genuinely wanted to do it.

After working all of NBC's beach volleyball coverage with Mike Dodd, including the gold-medal match that aired on the network Tuesday night in prime time, Watson's next assignment was to beat it back home for Thursday night's Long Beach Poly-Fontana game, which aired on Fox Sports Net 2.

And how's that? It aired live.

``How ironic is that?'' said Watson on Thursday morning as he tried to regain his bearings.

Watson had done play-by-play for every FSN2 high school telecast since its inception four seasons ago before he missed the last three weeks because of the Olympics assignment, which he described as ``an awesome experience.''

Fox's Bill Macdonald was NBC's first pick for the beach coverage, but he declined because of family matters. Macdonald recommended Watson, who was eventually hired just three months prior to the Games. Macdonald then covered for Watson on the high school telecasts, including last week's Hart-Westlake game.

Once the Olympic beach was closed, Watson had no second thoughts about getting back as soon as possible.

``Fox really went out of it way to let me go to Sydney,'' said Watson, ``and high school football is the real reason I was hired by them. I consider it my beat.''

``Normally after a trip I get a day or two to mellow out, but I'm stepping over suitcases trying to get more information on Fontana's offense.''

Watson got off one of the better closing lines for an event.

After the clinching point in the gold-medal match, he said on Tuesday night's broadcast: ``Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana had no business being on center court in the Olympic beach volleyball tournament, and now they own it.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--The Dodgers have given broadcaster Ross Porter a new three-year contract with an option for a fourth amid rumors that Porter's tenure with the team might be over after 24 seasons.

--Seen Shannon Miller lately? The '96 gold-medal gymnast working as an analyst for MSNBC's news shows on the Olympics has had some kind of makeover, going from a distant cousin of Tonya Harding to a lookalike for Kristin Davis on HBO's ``Sex in the City.'' Add some personality and Miller has a Summer Sanders-like future in the TV biz.

WHAT CHOKES

--The Dodgers have given broadcaster Rick Monday a new three-year contract with an option for a fourth amid rumors that Monday's tenure with the team might finally be over after eight seasons.

--Nice job by VISA, congratulating U.S. pole vaulter Stacy Dragila on her gol-medal performance during a commercial break in NBC's Tuesday's prime-time Olympic coverage. Especially since viewers didn't see Dragila's victory until about an hour later.

--Michelle Tafoya's call on the winning run for the U.S. softball team's gold-medal game. It's as if it came as a surprise to her that the game was actually over.

--Fox used the first comedian on its NFL coverage with Jimmy Kimmel on the Sunday-morning pregame show. It added funnyman Jay Mohr to the Fox Sports Net ``NFL This Morning'' program last week. Some of Mohr's first rips were at the Oakland Raiders' owner: ``Unless Al Davis is going to put eight busses together and jump them in the Network Associates Coliseum, I don't want to see the jumpsuit.'' Pretty original? How about his take on the Washington Redskins: ``I haven't seen a bunch of bigger underachieves like this since the Sweathogs on `Welcome Back Kotter.' '' Maybe you gotta hear them on the air. But who's up at 8 a.m. on Sunday?

CAPTION(S):

box

Box: SOUND BYTES (see text)