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It's been a busy off-season in the football broadcasting business.
ABC lost Tim Brant, its No. 1 college commentator, to CBS.
ABC hired Bob Griese away from NBC to replace Brant on college football.
ABC hired Dan Dierdorf away from CBS for use as a third broadcaster on "Monday Night Football."
NBC, in danger of losing Bob Trumpy to ABC had that network failed to land Dierdorf, re-signed Trumpy.
ESPN, which will televise pro football for the first time this year, selected Roy Firestone, better known as interviewer and impersonator, to be its No. 1 commentator. Firestone will work with play-by-play man Mike Patrick and a different guest commentator each week.
NBC passed on Tom Brookshier, who is retiring from CBS.
And the latest development is that NBC is trying to hire Joe Namath, an ABC reject, to replace Griese as Marv Albert's partner. Reportedly, Albert recommended Namath, but money is a problem. Namath made about $800,000 with ABC, and NBC isn't willing to pay nearly that much.
Add football: Frank Gifford, who last season went from play-by-play man to commentator in a new two-announcer format, said the move back to three announcers on "Monday Night Football" doesn't bother him.
"It's the format that Roone (Arledge) came up with originally, and it's not a bad one," Gifford said from New York. "As long as it's an exciting game, the number of announcers doesn't matter. But when the game goes south, as happened a lot last season, you can use someone else to play off of."
Gifford said he is high on Dierdorf. "He's a professional," Gifford said. "Like me, he started in local news and has worked his way up."
Dierdorf, an offensive lineman for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1971 through 1983, has worked for St. Louis radio station KMOX for the last 13 years. And for the past year, he has been a sports anchor at KMOV-TV in St. Louis.
Gifford said: "I just called...