Home, sweet home

Thomas Wolfe never coached in the NBA or hosted SportsCenter so forgive him if he was a little off: You can go home again. About three hours before the Lakers re-introduced Phil Jackson as head coach -- the same Phil Jackson who eviscerated his star player in a tell-all book following his not-so-Zenlike departure from the franchise -- Keith Olbermann was on a conference call announcing his return to ESPN Radio. Yes, the same Keith Olbermann who left Bristol in June 1997 in much the same manner Al Pacino treated his enemies at the end of Godfather II. As recently as October, Olbermann was still jabbing and tweaking ESPN management about the prospect of losing football guru Mel Kiper Jr. "My agent got a call once a week from management," Olbermann told USA Today. "They gave the impression that 'Keith is just a part of our success. He is a result of our success.' It was a deliberate attempt ... to [make you] think you might not be successful anywhere else... I do have advice for [ ESPN executive vice president] Mark Shapiro: You can't lose another guy like this. He's more important to the viewer than you are." Replied Shapiro: "It's rare that I agree with Keith, but here I concur."

What a difference a gig makes. Olbermann will join his old SportsCenter partner Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio as a regularly scheduled guest co-host of The Dan Patrick Show on Fridays at 2 p.m. The first show is Aug. 5. "I didn't burn the bridge," Olbermann said. "I burned the river. This is redemption for everybody. Anything is possible. The Red Sox might win the World Series, Phil Jackson could go back to the Lakers. Michael Jackson could be acquitted."

As of press time, however, Mark Felt had not rejoined the FBI.

The final act of Olbermann's reconciliation came two months ago when Traug Keller, senior vice president of ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes, told Olbermann over lunch he wanted to explore the prospect of Oblermann and Patrick together on the radio. "When I brought the idea back to a staff meeting at ESPN, I got no resistance," Keller said.

Olbermann will work out of ESPN's New York studios while Patrick (his show is aired on 339 stations including eight of the the top-10 markets) will be in Bristol for most shows. For now, Olbermann has no plans to extend his involvement beyond the once-a-week radio gig. "This is a exactly what it says it is," he said. "It's an hour a week."

The mending of the battered relationship has been a gradual process. In 2002 Olbermann wrote a column for Salon where he apologized to his former employer. "The idea that there has been some sort of really bad blood between people at ESPN and myself in these last few years isn't true," Olbermann said. "It's residual and residual because of my mistakes. And when the perfect opportunity arose that benefited both of us, you see literally how easily the bridge was rebuilt. ...Was I wrong about a lot of things? Damn wrong. Damn wrong about a lot of things. There are things that I've gone back and I can't mention as part of this deal. I can't actually mention the book in question; it was not written by Dan or myself. [I can mention the book in question: ESPN: The Uncensored History by Michael Freeman, a former New York Times reporter and now a columnist for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. The book was littered with Olbermann's opinions on his former employer.] "It was so arrogant and just clinically wrong and it reflected problems within me that I didn't understand at the time." No matter whether you view Olbermann as a revisionist, a changed man or a combination of both, he's a terrific broadcaster and raises the level of ESPN Radio even in a part-time gig. Patrick and Olbermann (who had a short-lived stint as a baseball columnist for this magazine following his ESPN days) will no doubt provide enjoyable listening, though it doesn't make up for the years Patrick's former partner, Rob Dibble, tortured the ears with his lug-headed nonsense. There's some thought that this is a first step to a larger role for Olbermann at the network. Time will tell.

He remains as the host of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann

If the AARP needs a spokesman, the pick here is John Madden. The 69-year-old football savant signed a six-year deal this week with NBC to be the lead analyst on its Sunday Night Football package, which begins in the fall of 2006. " John Madden is unquestionably the most honored NFL broadcaster off all time, and in my opinion, the best analyst of any kind in sports television history," said NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, who called the 14-time Emmy Award winner "an American icon." Along with calling games in a two-man booth with a yet-to-be-determined partner, Ebersol said Madden will be his consiglieri when it comes to picking games as part of the flexible schedule, which under the new TV deal gives NBC some protection from dud games over the final seven weeks of the season. "He's my partner in not only the booth but in the boardroom as we plot out this brand new innovative device of flex scheduling," Ebersol said. "For our last seven weeks we will be allowed to pick from a large pool after one game has been protected by the network ( CBS or Fox) carrying the doubleheader. I want very much for John to be my chief advisor on how to do that week in and week out.

The move to get Madden was swift and stealth. Late on the afternoon of April 17, the day after NBC announced its football deal for $3.6 billion for six years, Ebersol called Sandy Montag, Madden's longtime agent, to inquire about his availability. In mid-May Ebersol traveled to northern California to make a personal pitch to Madden. Last Monday, NBC and Montag started negotiations and the deal closed Wednesday. Madden said the idea of being part of something "new" and "fresh" was appealing and that retirement (he'll be 76 at the end of this deal) had never crossed his mind. As for being a lame duck announcer on ABC's final year of Monday Night Football? "That's the way things were played out, Madden said. "The lame duck thing really doesn't bother me because I'm with a good group."

One interesting moment on a conference call with Madden came when a reporter suggested Madden's larger-than-life on-air personality had gotten burdensome for some fans. "I am who I am and that's it," Madden responded. "It's never been an act. Everything I do is the way I feel. I've never rehearsed anything. I've never written down any lines." As for who will sit alongside Madden in NBC's Sunday Night Football booth, Ebersol said he will talk with Al Michaels when the NBA Finals end, which at this point that should be sometime in 2028. "Al is clearly one of the great play-by-play announcers in television history and if there's a deal to be worked out there, I'd sure like to try," Ebersol said, noting he would also talk to Fox analyst Cris Collinsworth when he returned from a trip to China. "He's high on any list I would put together," says Ebersol, who should expect a fight from Fox for Collinsworth's services. "He's on vacation right now in China and I'm sure we'll continue to talk to him when he comes back." Marv Albert is also in the mix.