Network television continues to move the bar lower in its desperate efforts to retain viewers. On Sunday night I witnessed a new low in Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the NFL” feature on NBC’s broadcast of the Patriots-Eagles game. This is apparently a regular feature on NBC, which demonstrates how little respect the network has for its audience.

When I heard the title of the segment, I assumed it would be about Michael Vick, who is a bad person by most accounts. Instead, the victim was Denver punter Todd Sauerbrun, who is apparently the worst person because he had two kicks returned for touchdowns by the Bears’ Devin Hester this weekend. For this mistake, commentator Olbermann administered a lashing of sarcastic abuse, concluding “Sauerbrun was once suspended by the league for violating the substance policy, perhaps now to be suspended by the league for violating the stupid policy.”

This was supposed to be funny, I guess, but it came across to me as simply mean-spirited and pathetic. Is NBC so backed into a corner that it has to resort to character assassination to attraction attention to itself? Could Keith Olbermann have embarrassed himself more?

Fortunately, the Patriots won, so I feel better :-).