RAIDER NATION RATES HIGH IN L.A.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

No wonder Al Davis insists on entitlement to the Los Angeles market whenever any NFL team threatens to move. From a TV ratings standpoint, the Raiders never really left.

And with the Silver and Black in the AFC title game Sunday as favorites to move on to the Super Bowl, L.A.'s outpost for Raider Nation shows strength in Nielsen numbers.

Although national ratings were up on three of the four networks that carried the NFL during the regular season - ABC's ``Monday Night Football'' ended flat because of more late-season duds - L.A.'s numbers were up at a greater percentage rate in 2002 over 2001 (see chart).

Much of that has to be attributed to the greatness of the Raiders.

KCBS Channel 2 benefited the most. It had nine Raiders telecasts this season and attracted a 10.6 rating and 24 share - a significant boost considering those games were factored into L.A.'s overall regular-season ratings to arrive at 7.9/18 number for all of CBS' AFC broadcasts.

Fox's KTTV Channel 11 affiliate also pulled its biggest L.A. number of the season when it had the Raiders - but that was only once, in Week 9 when it hosted San Francisco (13.2/29), a nice jump over the 9.0/21 L.A. usually brought to Fox's NFC telecasts.

The Raiders-Broncos game in Week 16 did a 14.0/31 for KCBS in L.A., the second-biggest draw in this market during the NFL regular season (only the Green Bay-N.Y. Jets season-ender on Fox did better at 14.4/30).

So what better team for this region to have in the postseason for CBS (this week) and ABC (possibly next week)? CBS Sports chief Sean McManus agrees, but with a caveat.

``There's no substitute for a home team generating ratings in a home market if they're playing competitive football,'' McManus said. ``L.A. is like a lot of markets with no home team that does well when (nearby) San Diego or Oakland are good stories, playing good football and have big stars. But a Denver will also rate well in L.A. when it's playing well.''

For what it's worth, last Sunday's AFC playoff game between the Raiders and N.Y. Jets did a national 22.1 rating and 38 share, the highest-rated Sunday divisional playoff game since NBC had Denver-Kansas City in 1998. In L.A., it was 20.5/41.

--Who you gonna call? Confusion over rules and judgments made by referees in recent NFL games might lead to Fox, CBS and ABC someday putting a retired game official in the booth to help the broadcasters. But that's not in anyone's plans for this weekend or next.

NFL senior director of officiating Mike Pereira, who answers questions about rules on NFL.com in monthly Q&A sessions, would be the No. 1 choice for any network, but his job is to help officiate the game and not be involved in TV issues.

``We can always contact (Pereira) for interpretations, but we feel we have the best communicators in the booth,'' CBS executive producer Tony Petitti said.

Besides, adds CBS' Phil Simms, ``the official (in the booth) might not even know the rule either.''

Fox's Troy Aikman, who is opposed to instant replay helping make decisions, relayed a story about being part of the officials' seminar in Dallas last summer, but ``we got a room full of officials, and they couldn't even agree on the interpretation of the rules.

``We have talked about having an official in the booth so he could explain it and we could have it right. But we can't even get an official to do that because they're scared to death that their interpretation is going to be wrong.''

--A statement game, in English and Chinese: ESPN's Bill Walton wrote in an online commentary that he's not ready to call Shaquille O'Neal ``The Big Apologist'' for his reaction to the overreaction about comments directed months ago to Yao Ming that for some reason resurfaced.

``There is no place in our world for Shaq's intolerance and insensitivity, and this from a man who has as much experience and knowledge in dealing with the media as anyone alive today,'' Walton wrote on ESPN.com.

``And as far as Shaq's `apology' is concerned: I don't get it when someone says, `If I offended anyone, I'm sorry.' That tactic really worked well for Trent Lott.''

That said, Walton was elated Thursday morning to discover ESPN added him to tonight's national coverage of the Lakers-Houston Rockets game, where Shaq and Yao face off for the first time.

``This is the kind of stuff I live for,'' Walton exclaimed.

Comparing it to the first time he played against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a pro in 1974, Walton gives a huge edge to Shaq.

``Kareem was six years older, and I wasn't ready physically, emotionally, in any way,'' Walton said. ``Here, Shaq (age 30) is not only the total physical package, but he's eight years older. Yao (age 22) is a lot like Vlade Divac, but Vlade's experience is what helps him develop somewhat of an ability to compete with Shaq.

``The challenge for Houston is to run the game through Yao and make Shaq play Yao's game. No one's going to win at Shaq's game.

``I see this thing as a motivation for Shaq. He'll use it as a driving force to convince people of his greatness. He'll let his game do the talking.''

That'll be refreshing.

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes

Box:

(1) SOUND BYTES

By Tom Hoffarth

(2) BY THE NUMBERS

Source: Networks/Nielsen ratings