MIAMI — Longtime ESPN anchor Chris Berman was among the more than 3,000 registered journalists to participate in Super Bowl XLI's Media Day.

Berman was among the first to feed the beast, the gluttonous NFL, with his charismatic nature, wit and trademark analysis. In his 26 years with ESPN, he has seen the NFL grow to a different magnitude.

The gluttonous growth of media coverage.

The fan participation in fantasy football.

Increased spending on NFL merchandise, including video games.

Gambling.

It all has some wondering: Is there too much football to go around?

"I'm a football fan myself, I like it a lot," said Jeffrey McCall, a professor of communications at DePauw University, a school located just outside of Indianapolis.

"But I do wonder sometimes if it becomes too much and it changes people's lifestyles. People can be planted in a chair to watch football for a long time. Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays. There are plenty of other things sensible people can do with their time — family-, exercise-related.

"The amazing thing to me is there's a sufficient audience to watch it all. I think real football fans can't get enough. Most of those real football fans could probably enjoy it the same if they didn't watch it as much. They just feel like they need to be glued to it all the time. It's naive to think it will change, but it does make you wonder if the way the television world treats it, they ought to be a little more responsible."

The NFL Network, now in its third year, doesn't agree. Its slogan: Everything But The Game, speaks volumes of the aim of its 105 hours of Super Bowl week coverage. A lineup that includes 21 anchors and analysts at five different South Florida locations covering everything from daily news conferences to replays of old Super Bowls.

"If what's going on is of interest, we're going to cover it," said NFL Network spokesman Dan Massason, who said the difference in media coverage between this year's Super Bowl and the previous South Florida Super Bowl in 1999 is "hard to quantify."

"There is tremendous interest in the game for the fans of these teams and around the country. There were many fans that watched Media Day from start to finish. And we want to be able to provide it for them."

But Media Day happened between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the middle of the workday for most Americans. And that's where people like McCall feel the excess in coverage is occurring. McCall says TV networks need to stay free of playing games during the middle of the week and go back to the days when high schools were played on Fridays, college on Saturdays and the pros on Sunday and Monday.