Taylor-made controversy

Taylor is promoting his new book, "LT: Over The Edge," with accounts of drug use, sex, and bounties for knocking opposing players out of games. It sounds as if he could be a scriptwriter for ESPN's "Playmakers."

The jousting began Thanksgiving Day, with Esiason, on the CBS pregame show, taking a disapproving stand on Taylor's book. He reiterated his remarks on his WFAN radio show Friday. Then CBS ratcheted things up Sunday, using the pregame "The NFL Today," to promote Taylor's "60 Minutes" appearance that evening.

During the pregame show, a heated discussion broke out among panelists Jim Nantz, Dan Marino, Deion Sanders, and Esiason.

Esiason and Sanders got especially confrontational. Esiason rehashed the situation yesterday on his weekly half-hour segment on WEEI radio, acknowledging that the clash between him and Sanders was inevitable, given their different backgrounds and outlooks on life.

Esiason said on Sunday's pregame show, "I've seen the whole [`60 Minutes'] piece, so I know exactly what he's saying. I had a lot of issues with it. The only reason we're talking about it is because he wrote about it and he wants to talk about it. This is not the NFL that I played in. He talks about how he circumvented the NFL's drug testing policy by using other players' urine. That is an affront. The fact is that he shouldn't have even been playing because he would have failed the drug test in the first place . . . I have a 12-year-old at home. He wants to ask me about what is crack cocaine? And crack . . ."

At which point Sanders chimed in, "Your 12-year-old doesn't know what crack cocaine is? He doesn't watch TV?"

And Esiason responded, "Crack cocaine is an illegal substance and it's one that we in the inner city and the suburbs should be taking more . . . we have to listen to this? I'm sorry, I don't have time for it."

The discussion went downhill from there, with Sanders calling Marino and Esiason "naive," saying he "never smoked or drank in my life," but "I did a lot of things that I'm not proud of. And I admit to it. Some people didn't do anything. I'm so fortunate to sit up here with guys that never done anything wrong."

Controversy is hardly new for a pregame show. ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" had its Rush Limbaugh and Tom Jackson moments, Fox paid "deactivated" receiver Keyshawn Johnson to be on its show last weekend, and now CBS has LT back in the limelight.

Now CBS gets to decide whether the story has enough legs for an encore next Sunday.

Basketball foul-up

It was an aptly named piece of equipment called the "switcher" that failed during the fourth quarter of Saturday's Celtics-Bucks game in Milwaukee, sending the FSNE production and announcing teams into full scramble mode.

"If it had happened earlier in the game, we'd have tried to pick up the feed from the Milwaukee broadcast team," said FSNE executive producer Steve Reagan yesterday.

The feed from a handheld camera under the basket was on screen when the switcher failed with about four minutes to play. That picture was locked in place until the technical people in the production truck were able to patch in the video from a camera high at midcourt. Missing for the duration of the game was the "Fox Box" graphic with the score and clocks across the top of the screen.

Announcers Mike Gorman and Tom Heinsohn switched to radio broadcast mode, working without monitors and trying to update the time and score as the Celtics faltered down the stretch in a 100-94 loss.

"Jim Edmonds, our director, has been here since we started in the '80s," said Reagan. "You don't want to get in tough spots like this, but when they arise, there are few he hasn't seen before."

WPIX picks up Lewis

Channel 7's Kip Lewis will join WPIX in New York as weekend sports anchor starting Jan. 5. "I've known for a while that I wanted to move to New York or LA," he said, "and WPIX is a good fit. I want to anchor and do some shows, and the opportunity is definitely there." Lewis will have a 10-minute sports report on the hourlong 10 p.m. news. "The sports report is long enough that they have a commercial break in the middle, then come back with more sports," he said. For the time being, he'll continue to work as a weekday reporter at Channel 7 . . . Globe staffers Bob Ryan and Nick Cafardo will be on Thursday's Globe "SportsPlus" show on NESN following the 7 p.m. Bruins-Maple Leafs game and "Overtime." . . . FSNE has taped coverage of the NCAA Division 1 Cross-Country Championships tomorrow at 3 p.m. . . . Sunday's Patriots-Colts telecast did a 33.1 rating (63 share), the best numbers the team has posted this season. The audience peaked at 39.9 (66 share) in the final quarter-hour. It was the best regular-season Patriots rating since last season's Chargers game (with Doug Flutie), which did a 33.2 rating and 58 share in the 4 p.m. time slot. Cheryl Garthwait, Channel 4's ace researcher, went back to the 1995 season without finding a higher Patriots rating in the 1 p.m. window. The buzz around the team helped Channel 4's 11:30 a.m. "Patriots Game Day" post a 3.5 rating, tying the number for last year's season finale against the Dolphins. "The NFL Today" CBS pregame show did a 6.2 rating, its highest local rating since a 7.9 before last season's finale . . . The "5th Quarter" promos during the game certainly irritated many fans. But they also worked. The Channel 38 show did a 6.3 rating -- its highest ever -- outrating the Saints-Redskins game on Channel 25 (3.4) . . . This Sunday, CBS is sending in Colts-Titans (Channel 4, 1 p.m.) as a warmup for Dolphins-Patriots at 4:15 p.m. (Aside to HD viewers: No word on when Channel 4 will join Comcast's HD lineup; for DirecTV viewers, Chiefs-Broncos is the CBS HD telecast of the week.) Fox brings in Redskins-Giants in the early window . . . Providence Bruins play-by-play man Corey Masse will be moonlighting in Boston this weekend, doing intermission and postgame reporting during Saturday night's Bruins-Flyers game, heading to NESN's studios to tape Sunday's "SportsDesk," then reporting for Monday's "SportsDesk" from the Dolphins-Patriots game.

Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com