First, the First Lady wants to be a U.S. Senator.

Now, a comedian becomes a commentator on "Monday Night Football."

As a comedian, Dennis Miller has carved his niche on "Saturday Night Live" and on his own HBO specials.

As an entertainer, he's a pretty funny guy.

As someone analyzing what went wrong in the fourth period of a Packers-49ers game, he's not likely to fill the bill.

Sports has crossed too far into the realm of entertainment.

Look at what happened to the NBA. There was a time when basketball was its prime product, and the sport was entertaining. But when Michael Jordan ascended to his throne, all the rules were thrown out to make the game more interesting. Since Jordan's retirement, hardly anyone knows how the game is supposed to be played and attendance and ratings have tumbled.

	“	Just as horse racing has floundered by catering to occasional bettors and forgetting about the daily bettor, broadcasting is trying to appeal to all. ”

At some point, broadcasting executives decided qualified professionals couldn't do the job alone, so retired athletes and even print journalists became broadcasters.

In most cases, the athletes and journalists had little broadcast experience.

Marty Glickman, the legendary New York announcer, had a second career training novice broadcasters for sports events.

I ventured into TV broadcasting a number of years ago when I was a color commentator for four years on the Massachusetts Shriners Football Classic broadcast.

It was a daunting task, being on the air for more than three hours.

When I made an obvious grammatical error, my broadcast partner, Dan Davis, waited for a commercial break before he took off his headset and barked, "It's not that easy, is it print boy?" Davis, whose radio call of Doug Flutie's "Hail Mary" pass to Gerard Phelan, is one of the most famous in New England broadcast history, had another lesson for me at halftime.

"Once you let it out of your mouth on a live broadcast, you can't take it back. It can't be edited," he said.

Since that experience, I've had more respect for professional broadcasters, and I've felt broadcasts belong to professionals, not just retired jocks or coaches.

Unfortunately, the networks are looking to expand their audiences.

Just as horse racing has floundered by catering to occasional bettors and forgetting about the daily bettor, broadcasting is trying to appeal to all.

When the Miller announcement was made on Thursday, one female editor bellowed, "Now, maybe I'll watch football. I love Dennis Miller."

Pleeeeeeeeease.