Next came “Phil Simms All-Iron Team,” which the neurotic Caveman from the Geico commercials gave a lighthearted beginning, middle and end.

The ever-needy Caveman tried to wheedle the picks out of Simms on the golf course before they were announced on the selection show — with limited success, and limited satisfaction.

Derrick Brooks? “I just don’t get it,” said the Caveman, who would have picked, uh, Bonnie Raitt.

The quality of the players’ character (including Brooks’) was a big determinant in being chosen for Simms’ squad, which gave the show a heartwarming touch and made it appealing to casual fans.

Then came the four-hour “The Super Bowl Today,” which — in the true commercial spirit of the whole affair — began with Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr., who also was promoting the upcoming film “Norbit.”

Just like every other Sunday of the football season, the CBS studio quartet of host James Brown along with analysts Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason and Shannon Sharpe made you miss the guys on Fox. They simply lack the chemistry of Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long et al. And no one on either show is as funny as Fox’s Frank Caliendo.

The heart-tugging stories really kicked in during the last pregame extravaganza, almost ad nauseam — among them, Everson Walls’ willingness to donate a kidney to former Dallas Cowboys teammate Ron Springs; Chicago Bears running back Thomas Jones’ supportive family; a visit with soldiers in Iraq; and Bill Walsh’s much-chronicled battle against cancer.

They even went all the way back to the tragically early deaths of long-ago Bears running backs Walter Payton and Brian Piccolo. (Hmmm. Might Netflix get a run on “Brian’s Song”?)

Almost all of the ground covered was well-trod: Indianapolis Colts receiver Marvin Harrison’s taciturn tendencies; the Jekyll-Hyde performances of Rex Grossman; the matchup between the first two black coaches to lead their team to the NFL title game.

As you can imagine, all the feel-good segments got a lot more airtime than, say, the story about the Bears’ Tank Johnson needing a judge’s OK to get out of house arrest on gun-possession charges and travel to Miami.

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The story barely got four minutes (remember: out of four hours!) including Esiason, Sharpe and Marino weighing in on whether Johnson should have been allowed to play. (Predictably, Esiason opposed Tank’s participation, Sharpe defended it, and Marino came down hard in the middle of the issue).

Katie Couric, who can chant “We’re No. 3” about CBS News, joined the guys, for yet another “very touching story indeed,” as Brown put it after introducing the high-priced “Evening News” anchorwoman by citing her sports reporting credibility. (“She brings a sports background to the desk. She ran track — an outstanding cheerleader”).

She tackled the topic of Hines Ward, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, and his Korean mother, who was shunned in her native country because of her biracial marriage, winding up a single mother here, and the bigotry that mother and son were subjected to.

But isn’t this a year-old story? Where’s the fresh, hard-hitting news?

Before all those hours fully dedicated to hyping the game, “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer was broadcast from Dolphin Stadium. At least the conversation was a little more serious with new league commissioner Roger Goodell as a guest.

Meanwhile, Tim Russert’s “Meet the Press” was busy with presidential candidate John Edwards. Who cares about that, right?