Suddenly, Tirico is Mr. Hockey?

EVERYWHERE, TV networks remain eager to reinvent the flat tire. NBC has announced Mike

Tirico will call an NHL game “For the First Time In His 30Year Career.” He’ll do playby-play on NBCSN’s Feb. 20 Chicago-Detroit game.

How nice. But why? NBC has competent hockey playby-players. No offense to Tirico, but why risk the telecast to someone who has never called a game? Bucket list? How many extra viewers will such an idea draw? Why draw attention from the game for a network novelty act?

If it’s designed to promote Tirico as the new No. 1 face and voice of NBC Sports, why not have him enter attached to a hang glider? That way he has a chance of crashing before the game rather than during it.

The last thing NBC should do for or to Tirico is push him on us so ceaselessly that the scheme becomes a seethrough boomerang. But that’s what TV does. Hockey isn’t always easy to watch on TV, given the small size of the puck and its rascally temperament to suddenly vanish, yet NBC tries to do whatever it can to further limit that view. It has returned to wasting screen space and distracting viewers by adding a digital clock timing the shifts of individual players — another worthless application of technology.

But come to think of it, in my 46-year career, I’ve never played third base for the San Diego Padres.

The @backaftathis Twitter account continues to serve a fresh smorgasbord of Mike Francesa delights.

This week, again, so many to choose from. But we’ll go with this one from the world’s most eminent expert on football in applying his expertise to a dissenting, thus interrupted, caller:

“Tom Brady took over a team that was already winning.”

In 2001, when Brady became New England’s starting QB, the Pats were 0-2. The previous year, his rookie season, the Pats were 5-11.

But Sitting Bull just fabricates facts to fit his falsehoods. He’s paid a lot to lie. Good work if you can get it.