AL ROKER

Anew National Football League season brings familiar sounds, faces and frustrations. Opening week will arrive with the realization things do change. For better or worse, people we had become accustomed to won’t be making the scene when the games count. Here’s to them.

Tom Jackson: Sunday morning won’t be the same without him delivering the word on ESPN’s pregame show. In the course of a few hours Jax displayed many emotions while analyzing issues surrounding the game, or just talking strategy.

No matter the colleagues surrounding him, it would ultimately come down to Jackson delivering a final verdict on whatever was being discussed. In a profession full of attention-seeking, hot-air-blowing Gasbags, Jackson defined credibility. And his trademark scowl was scary. He publicly stated he was going out on his own terms, that it was time to leave. Hopefully, this was how it went down. For if Jackson was forced out, even nudged out, it would provide evidence of some very cockeyed talent evaluation on the Bristol Clown Community College campus.

Mike Carey: CBS Sports suits did Carey a favor when they pink-slipped the former NFL ref who served as the network’s rules analyst.

Inevitably, his analysis provoked passionate reaction — mostly negative. So, it isn’t hard imagining Carey taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh of relief when CBS handed him his walking papers.

Nonetheless we will miss Carey. Mostly for the cliffhanger effect he created every time he was called on to analyze an official’s decision. Or predict the outcome of a replay review. What is he going to say? Will he get it right this time? How will Jim Nantz or Phil Simms spin it if Carey gets it wrong?

Carey created a game within the game. Now, we all will just have to live without it. How sad.

Mike Ditka: When he was in his prime as an analyst, Ditka was the real deal. No one should forget that.

As time marched on, Ditka spaced out on ESPN’s Sunday pregame. And quite often ground control had to bring the coach back down to earth.

Wake up, Mike!

Yet Ditka never lost his fearless approach. Unfiltered, or as unfiltered as he could be on ESPN, Ditka would say what was on his mind, even if it trended stone Neanderthal.

Ditka just didn’t give a ----. No one could express disgust — even for some of his studio mates — better than Ditka.

Cris Carter: That “fall guy” video hurt him in the credibility department, but few could preach on NFL issues like Carter.

The man got so worked up he often brought himself to near tears. If this was Carter showing off his acting skills it really didn’t matter because it worked.

If domestic violence or gun violence or substance abuse was a Sunday story, no one on any pregame show (all 17 hours of them) could deliver a sermon like Pastor Carter. He will be missed.

Amen!

While it was so-long for some, the new NFL season is apparently the beginning of the long goodbye for Chris Berman.

The qualifier is necessary because while it was widely reported Berman would “retire” from ESPN’s “Sunday Countdown” after the 2016 season, the network has yet to confirm he is actually splitting the scene. And his agent previously denied reports of any retirement.

Still, if this is the end for Berman, it bares watching. For on the way out, he is being called on to break in, and deal with, an entirely new cast (Randy Moss, Charles Woodson, Matthew Hasselbeck, Trent Dilfer). On their initial shows Berman, the engineer, could not prevent train-wreck TV.

Mostly because the voices tried bogarting the mikes and wound up talking over each other. So, good luck Mr. Berman.

If this is the end, well, what a way to go!

GOTTA ASK!

As Sandy Alderson “bad visual.”

Wednesday, moments after video of John Mara speaking with the media about the Josh Brown domestic violence situation aired on MSG’s “Giants Training Camp Live,” Sean O’Hara appeared with host Mike Crispino, who never asked the former Giants offensive lineman to reflect on what Mara said. would say, this was a

Nor did he ask O’Hara what he thought of the Brown situation.

This was foolish. And it did nothing to enhance O’Hara’s credibility as an NFL analyst. It’s not like he was ever reluctant to discuss the Brown case. Only hours earlier, O’Hara told WFAN’s Marc Malusis: “There is nothing they (Giants brass) can say that will make anyone feel better about the situation.”

At the time, Mara had not spoken. And O’Hara did not know the Giants co-owner was going to speak.

Meanwhile, it’s not such a great idea for media voices — like Bob Papa and Anita Marks — who work on “GTCL” to wear clothing that includes the Giants logo. It leaves a perception they are nothing more than Big Blue pom-pom holders.

RAINING ON POPE

During the religious portion of his ESPN98.7 soiree, Richard W. DiPietro Jr. had the following to say about Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa.

“Mike Francesa is the meteorologist of sports-talk radio,” DiPietro said Wednesday. “He gets everything wrong and still gets paid a lot of money.”

Nice line. It would be even better if DiPietro, or anyone else at 98.7, could actually beat His Holiness in the ratings race. Then, those clever lines would actually mean something.

MAKING IT OFFICIAL

When CBS Sports parted company with Carey last June, industry sources said the Eye might possibly get Dean Blandino, the NFL’s VP of officiating, involved in telecasts on a live basis.

If that does not happen, or if CBS doesn’t hire another former official, the “rules analyst” turf would once again be owned by Fox’s Mike Pereira. The NFL’s other TV partners (NBC, ESPN, NFLN) have yet to use on-air rules analysts.

Very puzzling, especially considering all the officiating controversies that happen every week. Maybe it’s just a simple matter of the pool of former officials not being ready to do live television.

Carey proved how difficult that transition can be.

What were the odds NBC’s WeatherDroid would one day wind up as the Dude? Well, Roker earned a spot in this hallowed space for his on-air performance as the curtain came down on NBC’s five-ring circus act in Rio more widely known as the Today show. Roker turned into a one-man tornado blowing away colleague Billy Bush for defending Ryan Lochte’s disgraceful behavior. Roker hammered the swimmer for his feeble attempts to rationalize his dishonesty. Roker needs to follow this brilliance up by actually providing an accurate forecast for Labor Day weekend.