CBS LACKS EYE FOR SKY-CAM.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

There's no question changes in camera technology over the past few years continue to tweak televised sports into looking more and more like an extension of a video game. In large part, it's trying to keep a young demographic interested, even at the risk of alienating older viewers.

Because of that, there's a hesitancy here to call any of these new angles an ``advancement'' until they've been fully tested and generally accepted by the masses.

Baseball's Catcher-Cam, hockey's Goalie-Cam and NASCAR's in-car cameras grade well. Basketball's Above-The-Rim-Cam and horse racing's Jockey-Cam could stay or disappear without any of us losing sleep.

Football's Sky-Cam was an immediate favorite of ours, one of the few positive things you could see coming out of NBC's adventure in covering the XFL in 2001. But as the remote-control gizmo dips and dives around on cables high above the action, the disorientated fans in New England have seen enough, based on how they reacted to CBS' coverage of the Patriots-Titans AFC playoff game from Foxboro, Mass., last Saturday night.

Unlike similar cameras used on NFL coverage by ESPN, ABC and Fox over the past two seasons, Sky-Cam only recently was added to CBS' arsenal. Obviously, network technicians still are reading the manual on how to operate it.

Exhibit A was in how it was used live to try to follow Adam Vinatieri's go-ahead field goal late in the fourth quarter. The Cable-Cam - as CBS calls it - from behind Vinatieri made his 46-yard kick look about a quarter- mile long.

Anyone else notice whether the kick was good? Thankfully, there were broadcasters to confirm it.

CBS Sports executive producer Tony Petitte admitted this week in a conference call with media writers that this was only the second time the network has used it and ``we were generally pleased by the way it performed. Like anything, the more we use it the more it will be accepted as part of the coverage. Whenever you inject something new, you've got to get used to it.''

Except that if other networks have been debugging it for two-plus seasons, wasn't anyone at CBS watching? And will viewers who easily suffer vertigo ever really get used to it without heavy doses of Dramamine? Those older than 18 who've never held a joy stick in their hands can't always be convinced the 50-yard-line vantage point is one that can be improved upon, meaning this low-flying-aircraft angle hardly will become something for them to stomach comfortably.

E-mail complaints to the Boston Globe, for example, referred to Cable-Cam as working against the frame of reference built over the years and taking the ``1st and Ten'' line out of effectiveness, according to a Globe story Tuesday.

``Listen, I'm the first to admit we're trying to grow into it,'' CBS Sports president Sean McManus said. ``If we used it four or five more times than we should, then we won't do it (in this Sunday's AFC title game or the upcoming Super Bowl). The times I've watched other networks use it, I notice it a lot on every kickoff and extra point. We found out this weekend that it's not good on long field goals - there you're much better taking a traditional shot.

``It's still a learning experience, and we're glad to know viewers are so passionate about our telecast.''

Fox executive producer Ed Goren, in a conference-call question about CBS' clumsy use of the camera, responded: ``In all fairness, for that crew, it was probably the first time they used it this year, and the tendency when you have a new toy is maybe to overuse it. We really try to be selective with it and not go to the well too often. In this case, less is more.''

--Into the frying pan: In light of the mess into which Matt Millen stepped when he left a high-profile job as a Fox NFL analyst to take charge of the Detroit Lions, Dan Marino took plenty of ribbing from his TV colleagues this week for leaving his CBS and HBO studio-analyst chair after four years to become the senior vice president of football operations for the Miami Dolphins.

``What are you thinking about? You had such a cushy life,'' Cris Collinsworth chided him on Wednesday's edition of HBO's ``Inside the NFL.''

Marino said it was just ``those competitive juices'' that made him want to get back into football as an apprentice to current team personnel chief Rick Spielman.

Troy Aikman, the former UCLA quarterback who joined Fox's No. 1 game-broadcast team this year, said he thought Marino's TV experience actually would make him a better candidate than if he had stepped in after his playing days ended.

``From my own experience, I feel I know players and the league much better now as an analyst than I did as a player because I go around and visit coaches and general managers,'' said Aikman, who retired after the 2000 season. ``I think I have a much better understanding of what's going on around the league.''

So would a front-office NFL job appeal to Aikman?

``You know what? It would,'' he said. ``I don't fault Danny whatsoever for taking on this responsibility and jumping into it. I think that most players would be reluctant to come out and say anything like that. But yeah, I think that there's elements of that job that would be very appealing.''

Which caused Goren to respond: ``Here comes a whole mess of rumors.''

Aikman was quick to point out Dallas owner Jerry Jones already has two sons and a son-in-law, so ``I don't think that there's any meaningful capacities with the Cowboys.''

--Names and numbers: ESPN's Sean Salisbury hasn't made an announcement about whether he'll take the Arizona Cardinals' quarterbacks-coach job, offered to him last week by Dennis Green, a former ESPN employee who recently subjected himself to taking the head-coaching spot. ...

John McEnroe's new talk show starting this spring on CNBC isn't supposed to interrupt his commitments to NBC for Wimbledon or CBS for the U.S. Open later this year. ...

As part of an unnecessary shake-up in its golf coverage, ABC has replaced long-time producer Jack Graham, who had logged more than 25 years in the company, with Mark Loomis, better known for his college football work. Executive producer Mike Pearl also named John DelVecchio as lead director (although previous director Jim Jennett will do ``select events''), added current PGA Tour player Hal Sutton as an analyst and will toss in new graphics and music for its broadcasts. It all debuts with the Bob Hope Classic next weekend and includes the Nissan Open from Riviera Country Club on Feb. 21-22 ...

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By Tom Hoffarth