Reece moves back into booth from sidelines   Now that "Eagles Total Access" is in the possession of CBS-3, sports director Beasley Reece will be cutting back his duties for the network's coverage of AFC football. Reece, who has been a sideline reporter for CBS the last three years, will return to his role as a game analyst, which he had done the previous nine years (for CBS and NBC). Although a game analyst is a more demanding job than sideline reporter, Reece will work only half of the games for the CBS, so he can concentrate on the CBS-3 Eagles package, which also includes a pregame and postgame show for every Eagles game and "The Donovan McNabb Show." Plus, Reece will take over "The Coach's Show" with Andy Reid and Merrill Reese on WYSP 94.1-FM. "With our increased role with the Eagles, I will be too busy to travel every weekend," Reece said. "It was a corporate decision to move me to game analyst. Since Craig James moved to ESPN, Sean [McManus, president of CBS Sports] decided to put me in that spot." Thus, Reece will be paired with Craig Bolerjack for about eight games this year. Reece will be part of "Eagles TotalAccess" from wherever he is sent. The first two weeks, he'll be in Charlotte and New Orleans. Reece said to expect many of the CBS-3 first-stringers to be part of the Eagles programming, including news anchor Larry Mendte, who is a huge sports fan, traffic anchor Bob Kelly and weather anchor Kathy Orr. Unfortunately, there won't be any changes to the network's pregame show "The NFL Today," which means Deion Sanders is returning. Jim Nantz anchors, along with analysts Sanders, Dan Marino and Boomer Esiason. Marcus Allen and Lesley Visser once again will serve as feature reporters. Esiason, Allen and Sanders all contributed to VH1's "Top 200 Pop Culture Icons" special. Evidently, CBS doesn't think Nantz is cool enough for sister station VH1, and made him guest star on the totally uncool "Yes, Dear" in the spring. After the lackluster performances of the NHL, NBA, WNBA and MLS, ABC must be champing at the bit for the return of perennial ratings winner "Monday Night Football." Luckily for the network, it doesn't have to wait until Monday night, as the season opener is moving up to Thursday, Sept. 4, when the Washington Redskins host Herman Edwards and the New York Jets. Of course, these days, a football game is only part of the evening's entertainment. An hour before the game starts, ABC airs "NFL Kickoff Live," featuring Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Aretha Franklin performing from the National Mall in Washington. Franklin will sing the national anthem, thus turning the mall into (insert corny joke) "Franklin Field." Aerosmith and Spears performed together at the Super Bowl two years ago, and for some reason Blige gets invited to this type of thing. When the actual game starts at 9 p.m., Al Michaels and John Madden will return for their second year as the "MNF" announcers. Lisa Guererro replaces Melissa Stark for that all-important sideline reporter role. The first Monday night game on Sept. 8 features the first-ever NFL regular-season game from Lincoln Financial Field as the Eagles host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kobe TV My choice for the best coverage of the Kobe Bryant story is "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" on Fox News Channel at 10 p.m. She asks the best questions and always gets interesting guests to give their perspectives on the case. Right guy, wrong hat Eagles center Hank Fraley wore an ESPN cap throughout his interview on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live" last Wednesday. Laura Nachman covers television and radio sports for the Courier Times. She can be reached at bradyresident@aol.com. August 8, 2003 6:40 AM