BUSINESS as usual. TV has long put the superfluous in Super Bowl, and yesterday’s Fox presentation was no exception. No, the telecast wasn’t awful. But, by design – a design years in the making – it couldn’t possibly be good.

For example, can’t any network on any NFL telecast present its starting lineups packages before the kickoff, as opposed to after?

Fox’s first move, yesterday, before the first play from scrimmage, was to immediately take us off the field to show us the Falcons’ starting offense. But 10 minutes earlier, during pregame introductions, Fox had covered the introductions of the Falcons’ starting offense.

Fox’s last move as the game ended was to show a series of crowd, confetti and trophy shots. Shouldn’t Fox, at that point, have stuck with John Elway and/or Mike Shanahan to see if either man interacted with Dan Reeves? After all, that soured relationship was the primary Super Bowl story line the last two weeks! Geez, what does it take?

Predictably, Fox tone-cue “news” inserts were interruptions of the absurd, shrinking the all-too-fleeting view of the game to deliver no news whatsoever, unless you consider Fox promos and Fox website come-ons to be news.

John Madden had some sharp moments, accurately calling penalties before the ref got on his mike, but he spoke such an overanalytical blue streak that he began to drone.

But again, virtually all NFL telecasts now feature analysts who can’t allow a single play to go by without forcing needless talk over needless replays. Give a guy lots of gratuitous replays and he’s forced to talk too much.

Yet, there were times when we needed both Madden and Pat Summerall when we were left to fend for ourselves. When Atlanta, trailing 34-19 with 2:00 left, went for a two-point conversion, a decision that made no sense, neither man questioned this move.

And Madden missed a golden opportunity to point to selfish behavior as harmful to one’s team. When, early in the fourth quarter, Atlanta’s Tim Dwight returned a kickoff for a TD to make it 31-13, Dwight slowed at the 10-yard line to face his pursuers and “style” a bit. If such an act cost the Falcons a second or two, and it did, it was well worth mentioning.

But the excesses of sports and sports TV productions, in concert with the excesses of the Super Bowl, can actually provide for some low comedy.

During the second quarter, as Summerall sang the virtues of the Budweiser blimp, Fox presented a shot of an overhead blimp, but it was the Goodyear version, a non-sponsor’s airship. Ooops! Wrong blimp. Fox quickly returned to the sky to show the Bud balloon. That’s show biz. *

RADIO side, CBS Radio Network’s presentation was in commercial during Denver’s second-quarter TD pass. Fox, too, nearly missed it. Then again, we should be used to that. Commercials are never missed for plays.