"He is one of the very best football broadcasters of his generation"

Pat Summerall? Dick Enberg?

What, did someone die? Oh, he IS one of the very best ... that could only mean that the quote that gets tossed around anytime a person of statue leaves to a better place from the TV world is being used to explain another NBC hiring.

It's actually taken verbatim from an NBC press release, issued moments ago from those who record and then transcribe the words of Esteemed Sports Chief Dick Ebersol -- in this case, he was expressing the utmost delight that Matt Millen has agreed to join the network's Super Bowl broadcast team next month.

No, not as a third man in the booth with Al Michaels and John Madden in the booth -- Millen's not that great a broadcaster in this generation -- only one of the very best. NBC's prop department will have to make another trip to the Relax The Back Store and find a chair for him to schoonce in as another widebody for the pre-game show because, of course, there isn't enough hot air already blowing through there.

Millen joined the NBC crew for its wildcard Saturday games and showed that, well, he could still talk. The recently fired Detroit Lions president used to be Dick Stockton's game booth partner at Fox. The former Pro Bowl linebacker who spent seven of his 11 NFL years as a Los Angeles Raider (career stats linked here) also worked for CBS and Westwood One.

"Many of us have been blessed with second chances and fortunate to have new opportunities," said Ebersol in the release, beating the drums to a new Millen Man March. "But the decision to have Matt join us for the Super Bowl was simple given that he is one of the very best football broadcasters of his generation."

Miller, who drove the present 0-16 Lions into the ground starting in 2001, said when asked Saturday on the air by NBC's Dan Patrick if he would have fired himself: "I would have, actually. Probably not this year until after the season."

When he could have been hired by NBC with even more fanfare.