Do you watch NFL football? Ever wonder why the commentators blab on and on about star players, sometimes hyping what they did quite far out of proportion?

For instance, on quarterback Brett Favre’s first pass of the Bears game Monday on ESPN he threw a strike to receiver Percy Harvin, who caught it and slid 20 or 30 feet on the slick surface to the out-of-bounds line, where he was able to stop his slide.

It was the first indication of just how slippery that surface was. People watching the game on ESPN at home talked about how slick the field was. Meanwhile, one of the ESPN analysts — Ron Jaworski or Jon Gruden — went on and on about Favre completing a pass.

Yes, indeed it was great seeing Favre throw again, but c’mon, the playing surface is unlike any Vikings fans have seen at home in decades. Isn’t THAT a bigger deal? Isn’t that what was worth commenting about at that moment?

Well, viewers just have to sigh and remember that producers encourage announcers to hype up the stars, often paying them more for talking swell about certain players. It gets ridiculous at times, marveling at the achievements of some players for doing nothing much and other times ignoring great achievement by ordinary guys. The faux journalism is at its worst on when NFL games are broadcast on ESPN and NFL Network (home of difficult-to-listen-to Joe Theisman).

We recall announcers going off the deep end for Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher — during another game — for a football that bounced off his helmet. He did nothing particularly athletic; a child wearing a helmet could have done the same thing. But announcers must have saw a chance to get their extra dollars by praising him.

High-def, surround sound and large, flat-screen televisions have done a lot to make watching the NFL at home a better experience than even a decade ago. TV producers seem to have done little to make the announcers more tolerable.

We urge TV producers to stop insulting the intelligence of audiences and find color commentators who have some semblance of objectivity and dignity.