Madden charged up over stealing signs

John Madden admits he's a football guy. He loves to talk X's and O's, or debate a quarterback matchup.

So when the Michael Vick story overshadowed the NFL's preseason, Madden was not pleased. Now the "Videogate" story threatens to take over the game he'll be broadcasting Sunday night for NBC between the Patriots and San Diego Chargers at Gillette Stadium.

"You hate to see that overshadow the game," he said. "This is one of the games, that when the schedule came out, you really looked forward to. These are two of the top five teams in the NFL. There's so much meat on this bone."

Madden's words came hours before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell - in a move that will certainly compromise the topic of conversation in the booth - fined Bill Belichick $500,000 and the Patriots $250,000, and took away a draft pick.

Madden, who coached the Oakland Raiders from 1969-79, said stealing signs is nothing new.

"Well, I mean, we all did it, and that was part of it, getting signals," he said. "Every coach in the world is always pushing to get a competitive advantage, that's always been happening.

"And if they are giving away cues, or clues, or whatever tendencies that you could pick up, you take them, and you play against them.

"Part of it is a player giving away a play. Part of it can be the snap count, part of it can be signals that they're signaling in, or you hear the things they yell. That's always been, happening from Day 1 of football."

The difference now, he said, "is it's become so sophisticated compared to when I coached. They not only have the tape after the game, but they have all the computer stuff to edit it. They know so much more about each other than we ever did."

Other than that, he said, nothing has really changed.

"It did happen when I was coaching, before I was coaching, and after I was coaching," Madden said. "The difference here is using videotape."

Madden also bemoaned the fact that the controversy detracted from last Sunday's game.

"The Patriots were so impressive against the Jets, especially their offensive line," he said. "They played really well, so there was a lot of good football there and a lot of things that they can carry over into this game."

So, does the controversy get him more excited about calling the game?

"No, I'm excited about the football," Madden said. "I'm a football purist. I have great passion and I love the game and great players. So the thing that excites me more than the news around it is having a player like LaDainian Tomlinson against a Tom Brady, and the defense of the two teams. That, to me, overshadows all this other stuff, and I hate it when this other stuff overshadows the game, because it shouldn't."

And it wouldn't bother him if Belichick was as reticent with the broadcast team in its weekend meeting with the coaches as he was with the media Wednesday when addressing the videotaping. "That's OK," Madden said. "I just want to talk about his football team."

He figures that's what most fans care about, too.

"It's a sidebar, what happens to Belichick," he said. "But if I'm a viewer and if I turn on the television to watch the game, I want to see the Patriots and Chargers."

It's a landslide
It seemed like a sports fan's dilemma last Sunday. On Channel 4, the Patriots were playing the New York Jets, and on NESN, the Red Sox were playing the Orioles in the middle of a pennant race.

But in the end, it was no contest.

The Patriots garnered a 26.4 rating, compared with an 8.8 for the Red Sox.

"The numbers for the Patriots were up significantly over last year," said Ed Piette, president and general manager of Channel 4. "And they were up in every demographic. The females were up even more than the males [percentage-wise]; even the males had more viewers."

He was hard pressed to explain why.

"Maybe it's Tom Brady being a new dad, or his relationship with a supermodel. I don't know," he said. "But in New England, the Patriots are family viewing. There's an awful lot of interest in the team in general."

Fishing for laughs
If comedian Daniel Whitney could parlay his shtick into a movie, "Larry the Cable Guy," why couldn't Charlie "The Mad Fisherman" Moore expand his horizons? Moore, host of ESPN's "Beat Charlie Moore" and NESN's "Charlie Moore Outdoors," has agreed to a deal with Fox Broadcasting to star in a sitcom tentatively scheduled to air in fall 2008. The comedy will be about a brash, wacky Boston guy (Moore) who's a local football coach. "I can't wait to bring my brand of outdoor humor to families across America," he said in a statement . . . ESPN is all over New England sports this weekend. The network will carry the Red Sox-Yankees tonight and Sunday night, and will air the Boston College at Georgia Tech football game on ESPN2 Saturday at 8 p.m. Also, ESPN on ABC will air the NASCAR Nextel Cup Race at New Hampshire International Speedway Sunday at 1 p.m. on Channel 5 . . . ESPN will air a "SportsCenter" special Sept. 25, called "The Vick Divide - An ESPN Town Meeting." The live show from Atlanta airs one month after Vick pleaded guilty to charges of involvement in dogfighting. The show, which will focus on how the story has affected the city and nation, will air 6-7:30 p.m.

Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com.