Sports

MCKAY TOO CLASSY FOR TV TODAY

EVEN the nicest, most well-intended talk can sound awfully cheap.

The passing of Jim McKay on Saturday inspired tributes from network bosses here, there and everywhere. All were basically the same: McKay was one of the finest people in broadcasting, a beloved and trusted man who earned the nation’s respect with superior writing, story-telling and reporting. He wasn’t a class act; there was no act.

The descriptions seemed accurate. McKay’s substance was his style. No screaming (What need is there to scream into a microphone?), no shtick, just a steady blend of dignity and credibility.

Yet all those tributes from all those TV executives got me thinking: Could that Jim McKay even find work in the business today?

After all, if current network bosses thought so much of him, why haven’t they looked for or cultivated more like him? Are such broadcasters considered passé? Are they trending extinct?

ESPN did a good job on Saturday and Sunday procuring and presenting tributes to McKay. Included were testimonies from Bob Iger, the president of Disney, ESPN’s parent company, and a former ABC boss, and George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN. Both spoke of McKay’s understated and dignified presence, the kind that allowed him to become the signature presence of ABC Sports.

So why, then, has a Chris Berman, a self-promotional dancing fool, become the signature presence of ESPN/ABC? Why does ABC/ESPN seem more eager to duplicate or to find the next Berman or Stuart Scott or Brent Musburger rather than the next Jim McKay?

Why is the hunt always on for the wise-guys, the blowhards, the screamers and the self-smitten intruders as opposed to those who might remind us of Jim McKay?

McKay for years was the easy-on-the-senses host of ABC’s British Open coverage. Yesterday, ESPN’s host of the U.S. Open again was Berman, who seemed to be on his best behavior, but whose usual clownsmanship infuriates audiences the way McKay never could because he never would.

How is it that McKay is recalled for so many noble qualities that now seem antiquated?

NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol, who broke into TV with ABC Sports, Saturday memorialized McKay: “He was truly the most respected and admired sportscaster of his generation and defined how the stories of sports can and should be covered. While we all know what an absolute titan he was in his chosen field, I will always remember him as an extraordinary human being guided by a strong moral compass.”

Gee, that’s a wonderful tribute from the man who turned NBC Sports over to Vince McMahon in the vulgar form of the XFL.

McKay’s son, Sean McManus, is the current president of CBS Sports and CBS News. Two weeks ago, CBS Sports launched an XFL/WWE-like primetime cage-fighting series. It’s violent, loud and bloody – all visceral stimuli designed to attract, sustain and further desensitize young male viewers.

Speaking off the record, CBS Sports vets aren’t particularly proud that CBS has entered the cage-fighting business. But they understand. You don’t want to miss that cage-fighting boat.

Could you see Jim McKay working a cage-fighting event? Or an XFL telecast? You think he’d make a good fit on Fox’s and CBS’s NFL pre-game put-down and forced belly laughs sessions? Would McKay have been a good choice as an ESPN “He Got Jacked Up!” panelist?

Or how about McKay co-hosting a sports radio show with Craig Carton or Chris Russo? Could you see McKay indulging the stylized nonsense of a Stephen A. Smith?

Can you envision McKay at an ESPN studio desk repeatedly crediting ESPN staffers or ESPN.com for breaking news that he doubted either actually broke? How about McKay making a cleavage crack as an ESPYs presenter?

Could you imagine McKay grinding away, trying to come up with some kind of forced and repetitive home run call or concocting nicknames for athletes that have nothing to do with the athletes but everything to do with Jim McKay?

Could you see McKay at an ESPN studio desk shilling for Disney movies, Disney resorts, ESPN restaurants, ESPN cell phones, ESPN Fantasy Leagues and ESPN magazines? Could you see McKay interrupting live coverage to interview “Dancing with the Stars” contestants and stars of “Desperate Housewives?”

Could you hear McKay merrily narrating ESPN’s latest updated video reel of baseball brawls?

Neither could I.

But those TV execs are right. McKay lent dignity and calm and modest sophistication to every event he was assigned. He was so good that today they’d tell him to come back when he has something worthwhile to offer.

phil.mushnick@nypost.com