SAINTS ARE AMERICA'S TV TEAM {SOURCE TOM HOFFARTH THE MEDIA.

It got to a point late last week, Terry Bradshaw admits, when all the video from the 24-hour TV news channels that showed more and more of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast states was just too emotionally draining.

``I watched a great deal of it initially, but I had to turn it off because it was too difficult to watch,'' said the ``NFL on Fox'' studio analyst and Louisiana native. ``My mother has been watching it all day long before she goes to bed, and I've talked to her about it every day. I don't think any of us fully understands it.''

Bradshaw tried to Thursday, spending the day around Baton Rouge and as close as he could get to the rescue efforts near New Orleans to put together a story for Fox's first NFL Sunday morning pregame show. The show will lead into Fox airing the New Orleans Saints' season opener at Carolina in the 10 a.m. window, a game that at first was scheduled to be aired regionally in just 14 percent of the country. It has been expanded to 36 percent so that those displaced by Hurricane Katrina in parts of Texas and Florida can, at the very least, watch their hometown team provide three hours of distraction.

Los Angeles, regrettably, isn't one of those markets that will see the Saints' opener, unless someone with some common sense decides to override a ridiculous viewer poll. KTTV-Channel 11 allowed anyone with access to its Web site to vote on the two Fox NFL telecasts for the opening Sunday. According to a Fox spokesman late Thursday, the voters picked Tampa Bay-Minnesota for 10 a.m., with Dallas-San Diego for 1 p.m.

To Bradshaw, the concept of watching any kind of televised football right now doesn't have to be a priority, much less a sense of relief.

``If I were a resident of New Orleans who lost everything I owned, had no home, and possibly lost a loved one, I don't think football is necessarily something that would help me escape,'' Bradshaw said. ``Honestly, I don't think football is something they 'can't wait to see' on Sunday, even if they have TV sets or are at a shelter somewhere across America. If you think about it, that's a pretty devastating situation.''

Bradshaw, a former Louisiana Tech star before his NFL days, said none of his relatives in Baton Rouge were left homeless, but the city about 80 miles northwest of New Orleans is now full of evacuees. Bradshaw's hometown of Shreveport, some 300-plus miles to the north, is also providing housing for the displaced.

CBS lead NFL play-by-play man Jim Nantz, who calls refugee-filled Houston his home base, says he lived for 3 1/2 years in New Orleans with his family in the late '60s because of his father's work. Nantz said his dad took him to the first Saints home game - a 27-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, despite a 94-yard opening kickoff return by the Saints' John Gilliam. Through all those losing seasons, the team has had a special place in Nantz's heart.

``You don't want to pull out the cliches, but how important to them is sports right now?'' said Nantz of the scattered Saints fans. ``The Saints have such an identity for that community.

``Wouldn't it be something if the team didn't play one home game and somehow put together a great season and gave some hope to the people who really need some good news right now. Maybe they can channel all this pain and create one magical season.''

Both Fox and CBS say they will accommodate whatever moves the NFL makes with maneuvering the Saints through their regular-season schedule in what could end up as the longest road trip in league history. Fox has already had the Saints-New York Giants game on Sept. 18 removed from its schedule and given it to ABC and ESPN as the opener to a newly created Sept. 19 Monday night doubleheader.

``It's just one of those things, and the commissioner had no easy answer,'' Fox Sports president and executive producer Ed Goren said of the Week 2 alteration. ``Are we hurt? Most definitely, but in this case there were not a lot of options.''

--Trying to have the right tone: Fox's Sunday pregame show has been expanded to 1 1/2 hours just for the opening weekend, but KTTV-Channel 11 decided not to add the first half hour that would have started the proceedings at 8:30 a.m. so it could stay with its scheduled news broadcast. Goren said the Fox pregame show will go to the opening introductions at the Saints-Panthers game just before 10 a.m. to see how the Carolina crowd reacts.

``In a small way, and with all due respect to the Dallas Cowboys, the Saints at the very least on this day will be America's team,'' said Goren.

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

-- Just minutes before Channel 4 sportscaster Fred Roggin goes onto the set to do his part of the 11 p.m. news each Friday this fall, he'll host a prep football wrapup show for 1540-AM (10-11 p.m.), starting tonight. Roggin pitched the idea earlier in the summer, then volunteered to act as the point man as reports from games across Southern California come in via stringers and with help from the Daily News sports desk. ``We've been using the high school score ticker (on the 11 p.m. news) for the last six years, and there's always a bump in viewership, so this is really a way to service those coming home from a game who want to immediately know other scores and call in to talk about their game,'' said Roggin, who will do the radio show from a studio at the KNBC Burbank offices.

WHAT CHOKES

--An ongoing dispute as to what his diminishing role has become as a college football studio analyst has led to Trev Alberts being fired by ESPN after he failed to report to work last Saturday. Alberts has worked with Rece Davis and Mark May from the Bristol, Conn., studios during the day while the ``College GameDay'' crew of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso are at a rotating game site location. ``It's just a matter of not wanting to be marginalized,'' Alberts told SI.com about his displeasure of some of his crew's responsibilities being taken away. Lou Holtz is scheduled to fill Alberts' role this week.

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