A tinge of sadness that ABC crew can't duck
''It won't be a funeral march" -- Fred Gaudelli, executive producer, ''ABC's Monday Night Football."
''It won't be a victory tour, either" -- Al Michaels, play-by-play announcer, ''MNF."
''I've done a lame-duck season; it's tough" -- Sean McManus, CBS Sports president.
''I've never looked forward to a season as much as I am to this. I know that once it gets going, I'm going to wish it never would end, but sadly it will" -- Gaudelli.
Those are some of the feelings as ABC launches its 36th -- and final -- season of ''Monday Night Football" tomorrow (Channel 5, 8 p.m.) with the Bears and Dolphins meeting in the Hall of Fame Game at Canton, Ohio. Next season, the ''MNF" franchise moves to ESPN.
Lame-duck seasons are never fun, but one factor should help save this one for ABC: It has the Super Bowl this season, from Detroit.
The Patriots will have three dates on ''Monday Night Football": The season opener on Sept. 8 -- which is actually a Thursday -- against the Raiders; another home date Nov. 7 against the Colts, and a Dec. 26 game vs. the Jets at the Meadowlands.
''The median age of Americans is somewhere around 35," said Michaels. ''That means an awful lot of people don't know life without 'Monday Night Football.' "
Weekend NFL highlights will remain a staple of the halftime show, with country artist Tim McGraw singing rewritten lines to his hits to describe the clips. ''A more contemporary way to keep highlights as part of the show," said Mark Shapiro, executive vice president of programming and production for ESPN and now ABC.
The legacy of ''Monday Night Football" will be saluted along the way.
''We've got two separate documentaries in development that plans are to run on both ABC and ESPN before the end of the year," said Shapiro.
''One will be a look back at the 36 years, from the concept to the lineage, with lots of anecdotes and stories that never made it on the air, from Howard Cosell to Al [Michaels]."
The second will feature the memorable moments, best plays, bloopers, and interesting interviews in the booth.
A lot has to be worked out, businesswise, but Shapiro said ESPN would be exploring ''the home video universe" in anticipation that the story of ''Monday Night Football" will be a collector's item for sports fans and nostalgia buffs.
While analyst John Madden, bound for NBC next season, said he didn't know whom he'd be working with on that network's ''Sunday Night Football," Shapiro said NBC Sports and Olympic chairman Dick Ebersol ''would benefit by bouncing the names of prospective partners off John."
Of their last hurrah in the booth, Michaels said, ''I've relished the opportunity to work with John. It will have been four great years. I only wish they could go on longer or had started earlier."
Said Madden, ''I'd be lying if I said it's not tough leaving Al. There's a lot more to it than just working together. It was tough when I left Pat [Summerall], and it's going to be tough leaving Al."
Michaels said, ''Let me use a horse racing analogy to describe this. Let's put the blinkers on and look straight ahead down the track."
After all, the ''MNF" group is the one NFL team that knows it's going to the Super Bowl.
Puppetry in motion ABC seems to be steering clear of controversy with its first ''MNF" opening feature tomorrow night, with The Muppets (Miss Piggy, Kermit The Frog & Co.) analyzing this year's Hall of Fame class, welcoming viewers to another season, and finishing with the now-traditional: ''Are you ready for some football?" . . . Fantasy football leagues are having an increasing influence on how the networks cover the NFL. CBS has real-time updates on stats in its on-screen StatTrak and GameTrax, and it will do an hourlong fantasy football show Aug. 20 at 1 p.m., with announcers Randy Cross and Gus Johnson plus CBS SportsLine fantasy guru Michael Fabiano. CBS studio analyst Boomer Esiason and editorial consultant (information guy) Pat Kirwan had a lengthy discussion last week about ways to present the detailed salary cap information that hardcore fans want without losing the casual fan . . . Sirius Radio again is carrying all NFL games, offering both teams' home broadcasts and the
Programming adjustment Next Monday, WWZN (1510) makes the first of what general manager Mike Winn says will be ''many changes over the next few months." The station will begin taking the Tony Bruno Sporting News Network morning show (9-noon), followed by the unlistenable Las Vegas Show from noon-2 p.m., Eddie Andelman from 2-4, and ''The Diehards" from 4-6 p.m. . . . Today's telecast of The Brickyard (Channel 7, 2:30 p.m.) marks the first time a race has been broadcast in high-definition from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway . . . Sean McDonough will do play by play on tomorrow night's Cardinals-Brewers game on ESPN. McDonough's agent, Sandy Montag, is investigating possible MLB local jobs for next season that would fit with his ESPN work. The thought remains that McDonough wouldn't be a bad fit next to Madden when ''Sunday Night Football" goes to NBC. ''Dick Ebersol has a whole year to make that decision," said Montag. ''It would seem that the field is wide open now that Al [Michaels] decided to stay with the Monday night package." The prevailing feeling among the media people in New York last week was that Marv Albert was a strong possibility and that Tom Hammond was a sentimental favorite . . . Fox may be the network of the NFC, but that was
Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com. 
