ESPN has the angles covered, sideline to sideline

Oops. That was a digression. The real chess match of the day is man vs. man. Tonight. Channel 5 and ESPN. 8:30. Cowboy Bill vs. Patriot Bill. It's going to be done the old-fashioned way, with 22 actual men on their board at all times. The highest-tech aspect of the match will be ESPN's HD transmission.

"This is between two chessmasters: The mentor and the protege," said Jay Rothman, the ESPN senior coordinating producer in charge of tonight's telecast from Gillette Stadium.

"When was the last time a game has piqued the interest of fans more because of the coaches involved than the players? We weren't saying that when Parcells went back to New York. Parcells-Fassel or Parcells-Edwards doesn't have the same cachet."

While the hype has been building in Patriot Nation for two weeks, Rothman has taken an entirely different approach.

"Everyone else has done the hype for us already," he said. "Our job is to cover the heck out of the game. We've got the chess match, now it's time to document all the moves as well as to show the electricity in the stadium."

Some things to look for in tonight's coverage (quotes are Rothman's unless noted):

The coaches. "Normally we're wary of overshooting the coaches. Not this time. With the possible exceptions of Tom Brady and Darren Woodson, there aren't a lot of future Hall of Famers on the field. We'll have reaction shots in all critical situations."

Aerial shots: "There's no blimp this week. The area around Foxborough is too dark at night. Sky Cam will be our high shot."

Miked players: "We got 30 minutes of priceless material from the Ravens' Ray Lewis last week. After the game, I sat back and listened to it all as we downloaded it to Bristol." There will be no players miked this week.

The "Weasel" camera: "We'll have a handheld camera poking into all the nooks and crannies of the stadium and bringing back shots from the suites, concession stands, lighthouse, bridge, and stands we can use coming out of breaks."

Coaches' challenges. "We haven't had a lot this year on Sunday night. Challenges, penalties, and lots of passing make for long games." ESPN has been lucky to finish most of its games by 11:30 this season, though last week's Rams-Ravens game was an exception.

Don't adjust the color: Those are new silver jerseys the Patriots will be wearing tonight.

Information factor: "I guarantee we'll have some information you won't have heard before. The players like being on in prime time and they like talking to `our guys' -- Mike Patrick, Paul Maguire, Joe Theismann, and Suzy Kolber. Our people also keep working on the field during pregame and that's sometimes when they get their best stuff."

HD: "The audio and pictures are unbelievable, but what really amazes me about HD is when you have a close-up of the quarterback facing a low end-zone camera, the face of a fan 120 yards away in the other end zone is just as clear." The bad news: Watching in HD, with its longer delay, makes it impossible to listen to Patriots radio voices Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti. The good news: The ESPN crew is good.

On Thursday afternoon, the computer beat Kasparov, taking a 1-0-1 lead in the four-match series. Tonight, one of the NFL's grandmasters will win.

Sports extras

Channel 5 has a half-hour "Primed for Parcells" pregame show at 8 with Mike Lynch, Mike Dowling, and Steve Nelson. Lynch examines the Belichick-Parcells history and talks to Belichick about the status of their relationship, and Dowling talks with the present Patriots who played for Parcells . . . Tonight marks the Patriots' 99th consecutive sellout (all games during the Robert Kraft Era) and the 206th consecutive Patriots game to be televised . . . WBCN will do its normal three-hour pregame show with Bill Abbate and Pete Brock, and a two-hour postgame with Tim Fox joining the crew . . . WEEI will have pregame coverage, beginning at 4, but won't be able to carry its customary national Sunday night NFL feed. Its "Real Postgame Show" will air for two hours following the game . . . Channel 4 will have its normal "Patriots Game Day" at 11:30 this morning and do a special "Sports Final/5th Quarter" immediately after the game . . . Parcells will be on tonight's postgame "SportsCenter" in an interview taped yesterday with Kolber . . . CBS's Phil Simms has a great analysis of tonight's matchup on www.nfl.com, one that makes it clear he'd love to be calling that game instead of Jets-Colts (Channel 4, 4 p.m.) . . . Kraft and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will join host Bob Ley to discuss the state of the NFL on ESPN's "Outside The Lines" at 9:30 this morning . . . The University of Connecticut's basketball team makes its debut tomorrow in the preseason NIT. The Huskies host Yale (ESPN2, 7 p.m.) . . . Last Saturday's Roy Jones Jr.-Antonio Tarver light heavyweight bout generated 250,000 pay-per-view buys ($11.5 million), 150,000 from cable systems and 100,000 from dish owners . . . A curious guy (hello, me) logged on to www.sportscardsplus.com to see how the auction of Bob Cousy's memorabilia collection is going. The good news: As of Thursday evening, a quick tally was well over $150,000. "All signs are positive," said auction director Dan Imler, "especially the registration numbers. This auction has brought the biggest number of new bidders in our history." The danger: Log on at your peril. Perhaps, as I did, you'll see something that speaks to you, wind up registering and getting into the bidding . . . The new title sponsor -- Levitra -- for ABC's Skins Game, to be shown over Thanksgiving weekend, seems to be making a statement on the changing nature of the golf-watching demographic.

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