RYAN'S ON-AIR BALL IS COURTESY OF TV.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

It took a veteran media member like Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan to finally prove this week that, in the lunacy of TV sports punditry, if you throw enough verbal grenades, one invariably will blow up in your own face.

Ryan took one for the scream team this week when his newspaper bosses decided it was necessary to suspend him for one month and forbid his opinions to air in any form of manipulated media during that time. That's the result of an offhanded-translated- into-politically insensitive comment he made on a local Boston TV show directed at New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd's wife, Joumana, who has been the victim of spousal abuse.

By saying he'd ``like to smack her'' for the way she conducts herself in public, Ryan might not have been uttering anything different than others in this field have without the TV cameras turned on - not just about Joumana Kidd but about other obnoxious athletes, owners, referees or fans.

The tragedy is, she literally has been smacked in the past by her husband, who was arrested on domestic-violence charges in 2001 but never prosecuted after he agreed to a fine and counseling. Thus, Ryan's witty choice of words was completely inappropriate, and he realizes it.

Ryan could have apologized immediately on the air during the Sunday night TV show, WBZ-TV's ``Sports Final,'' since the host, Bob Lobel, gave him several chances to clarify. Ryan eventually apologized publicly Tuesday when the suspension was announced, although, according a New York Post writer who talked to him, it wasn't until he was driving home after the show and wasn't caught up in the glamour of the appearance that he actually had some regret.

``I know the times, I know the problem,'' Ryan told the writer. ``It's like saying, `I'm going to kill you.' You don't really mean it. I regret it. It was a stupid choice of words. Stupid guy-talk.''

Therein lies the problem.

With the proliferation of best damn stupid guy-talk shows, it's amazing this hasn't happened sooner with punishments more in line with Jimmy ``The Greek'' Snyder's firing from CBS 15 years ago for his ethnic slur.

It actually was somewhat amusing to watch how Ryan's suspension had a short-term chilling effect the next day on the same ESPN afternoon banter show on which Ryan so often makes an appearance.

During Wednesday's edition of probably the best example of public-forum irresponsibility and insensitivity, ``Around The Horn,'' loudmouth host Max Kellerman was so rattled by the topic he wasn't even giving any points to columnists for their opinions during the debate because ``the subject is serious.''

Still, he muted Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers for failing to back Ryan like columnists Jay Mariotti, Woody Paige and Michael Holley.

Simers was far more on the right track than the others when he proclaimed: ``This is a show where we pounce on people every day for using bad judgment. And part of the problem is TV puts us in a position (to be) outrageous. They love it when we say stupid things.''

Next, on ``Pardon The Interruption,'' co-hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon went three segments on the Ryan situation and came to some soulful conclusions.

Kornheiser, a friend of Ryan's, was bothered other critics took glee in Ryan's suspension but added: ``We recognize that the business we're in, which is essentially to be sports critics and judge people in sports on TV, it leaves us open to be judged as well.''

``And it's not only OK for us to be judged, but we ought to be,'' Wilbon added.

Wilbon also pointed out Ryan seemed most upset Joumana Kidd was, in his words, ``an exhibitionist,'' one who ``wants face time on camera'' by bringing her 4-year-old son, T.J., to games and sitting courtside as she pursues a reporting job with the Hollywood lifestyle show ``Extra.''

Ryan, a regular on at least two ESPN shows a week in addition to time spent blathering on ESPN radio and local TV, doesn't seem to mind getting plenty of camera time himself. Fact is, the more Ryan and others make these kind of over-the-top statements, the more face time they'll eventually get from TV producers.

One has to assume that based on his history, TNT's Charles Barkley could have made the exact same statement without a ripple of controversy resulting from it. But the sickening thing is that Barkley, of all the TV bobbleheads, might have had the most reasonable take on Ryan's plight during halftime of the Lakers-Spurs game Wednesday on TNT:

``He made a horrible mistake, but I'm not going to dump on Bob Ryan. ... The thing I want him to understand is it's easy for these sportscasters to get on TV when one of us, or somebody in the limelight, whether you are Mike Price or Larry Eustachy ... and say that this guy is a bad guy. ...

``Now maybe he'll have more sympathy for famous jocks and other famous people when they make mistakes.''

Likewise, now maybe more of these speak-first, think-later columnists- turned-entertainers will consider the mute button on their own careers when it comes time to launch these attention-seeking scuds.

What they might soon realize, unfortunately, is that what Ryan did will only boost his media appeal when he eventually comes back to his aggressive approach to typing and yapping for the rewards of more ego gratification.

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By Tom Hoffarth