WHILE the race among TV networks remains intense – the race to take us all lower, that is – there’s another constant:

No head of any network’s sports division has demonstrated the courage to step forward to claim or accept responsibility, to clearly state that under his leadership the methods through which his network now presents sports in the pursuit of the almighty “young, male demographic” is either personally encouraged or condoned by him.

This past Sunday, at 8:30 p.m. – 5:30 Pacific Time – ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football,” Panthers vs. Falcons, opened to a rehearsed and taped come-on that found a bunch of young men in Michael Vick jerseys standing, back-to-the-camera and side-by-side – at a row of urinals.

Not that it’s relevant, but there was nothing even marginally clever about the skit. This was just another effort to show how naughty ESPN has become, another opportunity to show how far and how low the network is willing to go to win the hearts, minds and crotches of young wiseguys.

If George Bodenheimer, president of Disney-owned ABC/ESPN Sports, feels that this was an appropriate manner in which to begin a national telecast of an NFL game – if he would deem this to be a proper way for your family and his family to be introduced to a live sports event – then he should be willing to put his name to it.

In fact, we’ll provide the space. If Bodenheimer believes that a group urination scene is an appropriate way to begin an NFL telecast, we’ll be happy to carry his words in this column.

Don’t tell us, Mr. Bodenheimer, what we already know – that what ESPN did Sunday is no worse than what’s now commonly seen on TV. Tell us that opening a national Sunday NFL telecast with a urination scene is an appropriate presentation, that it has your personal blessings.

Later this week, Fox took a similar road, naming injured Raiders’ LB Bill Romanowski an NFL color analyst for the rest of the season.

Romanowski has an extensive NFL rap sheet for mayhem and malevolence – one unlike any other’s. He’s closely linked to the THG steroid scandal, he has spat on an opponent and he has been fined for breaking the face of both an opponent (Kerry Collins, 1997) and a teammate (Marcus Williams, this year). In 1999, he was five times sanctioned by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct.

And this week he was assigned by Fox to work Sunday’s Panthers-Cards.

But we can no longer be surprised. Fox’s NFL package has long pointed to the worst acts as its favorite people, the kind to best win the approval of that young, male demographic.

The same offer applies to Fox Sports bosses David Hill and Ed Goren that applies to ESPN’s Bodenheimer:

If Hill and Goren believe that Romanowski is the kind of fellow worthy of their reward, if they feel that he’s a good representative of both sports and Fox Sports, if they feel that those coveted young people in Fox’s audience – as well as the kids in their own families – should admire Romanowski, then they should put their names to just that.

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Pete Rose Jr. has filed for bankruptcy, with $143,000 in assets compared to $191,000 in liabilities. Among his listed assets, filed in a Cincinnati court, is an autographed Pete Rose baseball, which he valued at $75. Not to kick a guy when he’s down, but it would then stand to reason that if his dad gave him 650 such baseballs, he’d be out of debt. Then again, given that the market’s flooded with Rose Sr.’s autographs, 75 bucks is high.

Lawrence Taylor, making the TV rounds to sell his book, has, again, claimed to have cleaned up his act. He even says that his days as “LT” are over. While we’d love to believe him – after all, he’s the greatest defensive player many of us have ever seen – we’d much prefer to keep calling him LT than BS.

ESPN’s notion-addicted NFL trio – Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire – Sunday told us that Panther RB Stephen Davis averages nearly 25 carries per game as the result of a preseason decision made by coach John Fox. Ridiculous. Davis has been able to carry more because the Panthers – now 8-5 and blown out only once – have rarely been forced to pass.