When I was a kid, Yankees rain delays and rainouts weren’t a total loss because Ch. 11 would plug in old — old even then for kids who grew up in black and white — episodes of 1950s “Abbott and Costello.” Anyone recall “Mike the Cop”? 

After years of watching — or trying to watch — CBS’ NFL pregame show, I’ve concluded that the laptops, flipped open to be utilized by the many come-and-go panelists, provide CBS and its on-air crew just two things: 

1. The opportunity to be paid to exhibit the computers’ corporate logo on the side that faces the TV cameras and a national audience. 
2. The opportunity for the panelists to play solitaire — place the jack under the queen — while on the air. 

After all, nothing pertinent, nothing worth knowing or hearing could be on their screens, or the show, same as Fox’s NFL pregame show, wouldn’t be known as a colossal waste of time, effort and money as exacerbated when they moved from half-hour programs to full hours in order to further emphasize their worthlessness and/or computer logos. 

Neither show even bothers to be much different, let alone better.