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Monday, October 01, 2001

Let's turn this column over to two garrulous former cornerbacks currently in the employ of CBS. One worked the Steelers-Bills broadcast yesterday. The other worked his first of a half-dozen "NFL Today" regular-season shows, Lord help us.

One is an affable fellow who can talk the football talk.

The other is a chain-wearing rapmeister turned minister who talks and talks and talks.

Wise Solomon Wilcots, color commentator.

Neon Deion Sanders, colorful commentator.

First, Wilcots. In short order, he was impressed with Mike Mularkey's offensive play selection, the Jerome Bettis-Amos Zereoue 1-2 punch, Hines Ward and the defense he witnessed in the Steelers' 20-3 triumph at Buffalo. He was unimpressed with Plaxico Burress.

"With Pittsburgh's situation, coming off a 21-day layoff, you expect a little rust," Wilcots began. "The defense came out and played well. Obviously, that's the strength of the football team.

"Offensively, I thought they should have gotten Jerome Bettis going earlier. But they did that in the second half. I was impressed with Mike and play selection, mixing it up. At least they have much more balance than they've had the past two years. Schemewise, I like what Mike is doing.

"It's going to look ugly for a while, until you can get some semblance of a passing game. You've got receivers getting open. Kordell [Stewart] has to be more consistent getting it to them. And the guys getting open have to be more consistent making the catch.

"Hines Ward is wonderful. I think he's going to have a breakout season. But you've got to get Plaxico to stand up and make plays. The ball is perfectly thrown to the outside, and Plex doesn't do a good job of timing it up. He appears to be jumping too soon. It's like basketball: You've got to jump and use your body. The one over the middle ... hits him in the hands, and he can't make the catch."

Wilcots once played for the Steelers. He played in Bill Cowher's first season in 1992. That doesn't make him biased (although he admits he's in the corner of his fellow University of Colorado alumnus).

A longtime Cincinnati television sportscaster and ESPN pro football reporter, Wilcots switched networks with former Ian Eagle partner and recent Pitt number-retiree Mark May. Wilcots enjoys this color commentator gig already.

"I like this a lot," Wilcots said of booth work alongside Eagle. "We still have so many things to work out. But it gives me a chance to share my knowledge of the game ... share the stories of the people I've worked with."

Now to the man who needs no introduction, but craves the attention just so he gets another chance to hear his own name.

Are you ready for Prime Time at pregame? Neon at noon? Better yet, is he?

"I just plan on being me," Sanders said on a telephone conference call, his first post-retirement interview with the media he claims to love so. Then again, he claims lots of things. "[CBS officials] asked for Deion Sanders. They signed Deion Sanders. I can't be anyone else."

Why TV? "At Florida State, I majored in communications -- until I switched majors to eligibility. I've always looked at this business as entertainment. I've always been able to reach through the camera and grab that man, that woman, that child sitting on their living-room furniture. With all my heart, all my might ... that's the way I'm approaching this TV thing."

Is there a football-baseball comeback in the offing? "I'm not speaking like Michael Jordan. I'm saying 'never ... again ...' That's it. My wife won't let me."

Why pick CBS; didn't Fox or ESPN make lucrative offers? "Let's be for real: They definitely had a plan for me. It wasn't a monetary package that did it. It was the opportunity, the desire, the commitment [of CBS]."

Funny, but CBS was the same network that once sent color commentator Tim McCarver into a baseball locker room where Sanders dumped water on him. "That was something in my past. It was very childish and stupid."

From preening to preaching. He seems to have changed some. But you wonder if he can entertain, inform and opine well enough to keep our interest. Otherwise, Neon Deion will simply become the Mouth that Bored.

In addition to The Big Picture, Chuck Finder writes a general-sports column exclusive to the http://www.post-gazette.com/ every Tuesday. He can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com