OTHER TECH

Calling the Shots Photo by Michelle Hood During his days as a quarterback for the Washington Redskins, Joe Theismann was renowned for his unflappability. That same trait has served him well not only as one of the analysts for ESPN's Sunday Night Football, but also as an interview subject.

Talking by phone about the network's adoption of HDTV, Theismann explains how the technology will soon revolutionize the viewing experience for football fans. "Once you watch something in high-definition, you get spoiled," he says. "You can see the eyes of the quarterback, exactly where he's looking. You can see whether a player's feet were in bounds on a really close play." He pauses for a second, then adds, "My wife just busted something on her hand. If we had HDTV here, you could see where all the glass is around the kitchen now." He pauses again. "Are you okay, honey?" (She is.)

Theismann downplays HDTV's impact on his role as an analyst - "to be honest, it really doesn't affect our side of the camera that much." But he says the added video resolution allows him to call attention to aspects of the game that might have gone unnoticed by viewers watching in standard-definition. "There are so many things that happen over the course of a game," he explains. "A lot of the time, you can read an offensive line by the weight that they have on their hands: their knuckles are white from all the pressure. Because of the clarity that high-definition brings, you can add things like that to the telecast."

Theismann acknowledges that there's been a feeling-out period with the new technology, but he says that minor blips are a small price to pay for the increased detail and precision. "HDTV lends so much emotion to what we're doing. It helps us take viewers deeper into the game. We can capture moments of joy, concentration, power, pain - and that's what the fans love about football."