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Wednesday, June 05, 2002

By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Get ready for the Goose on a Fox.

More precisely, Tony Siragusa -- the onetime Pitt standout, recently retired Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle and all-around media bon vivant -- was announced yesterday as a studio analyst alongside Michael Irvin on Fox Sports Net's refurbished national pregame show.

Forget Marv Levy and the other guys from the past few years of the 90-minute "The NFL This Morning" every pro football Sunday. This new program, called "The NFL Show," will air on Saturday nights, first in a late-night slot opposite "Saturday Night Live" and then in primetime after Fox Sports Net's Pac-10 football schedule ends. "The NFL Show" will be replayed at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, with live updates from the Fox network pregame crew.

Fox's cable sister station wants edgy programming, so going with a honking Goose and a former Cowboys star, who has had several run-ins with authorities, might well deliver that.

"I like that the show is going to Saturday night, that we can get a bigger audience," Siragusa said. "This is going to be a perfect situation for myself, my personality. The booth isn't the place for me. I want to be on a show where I can be me, have fun, do crazy things ... and entertain people."

"I'm just happy to have a job," joked Irvin. He was in line for a Fox football position in 2000 and '01 before two more incidents in which charges were ultimately dismissed. "It would be hard for me to ever have anything but -- in ebonics -- straight love for the boys at Fox. I put them in a situation. I understand business. I'm thankful they stayed with me through my times."

Chris Myers remains the show's host. It is set to debut Sept. 8, after the channel's college-football broadcast that night. It will change into a two-hour program Nov. 24, at the end of Fox's NASCAR schedule.