By Lyle Fitzsimmons

Somewhere before Katy Perry’s mid-air screeching, Tom Brady’s dramatic rallying and Nationwide’s dead child “conversation starter,” there was a subtle reminder that boxing – such as it is circa 2015 – might be ready for a Patriots-esque comeback, too.

Lest anyone missed it, Sunday’s prolonged pre-game festivities included commercial cameos by unlikely party crashers named Thurman, Guerrero, Broner and Molina, previewing what they’ll be delivering to the network long after Deflate-Gate and Malcolm Butler become yesterday’s news.

In fact, thanks to a heretofore unlikely tag team of Al Haymon and the Peacock Network, NBC is just four Saturdays from raising the curtain on a partnership that’ll make a lot of people feel as if the sport has hacked back into its early 1980s weekend glory.

The union means the Las Vegas-based entity officially known as Haymon Boxing Management has purchased time on NBC and NBC Sports Network that will yield 20 live shows in the new calendar year, the first of which will be broadcast on March 7 and feature a high-end double bill that matches Robert Guerrero and Keith Thurman in one fight and Adrien Broner against John Molina Jr. in another.

Reigning 140-pound title claimants Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson will face off on the second card on April 11, though their get-together will be a non-championship affair at a 143-pound catchweight.

Overall, Haymon’s $20 million outlay translates to five Saturday night “Premier Boxing Champions” prime-time shows on NBC, six more shows on Saturday afternoons and the remaining nine in prime time on the NBC Sports Network. Al Michaels will do blow-by-blow, with Ray Leonard providing analysis.

And Lamont Jones, Haymon’s vice president of operations, promised that the marquee matchups on the first two shows would be indicative of the project as a whole.

“The way that I look at it is that if a customer goes to the grocery store and sees one steak that has USDA on it and one steak that doesn’t, they’re going to buy that USDA steak,” he said. “So we want the fans to know that when they see a fight card and a series that has PBC on the telecast, that they’re going to know that can expect to see high quality and competitive matchups.”

For NBC, it’s a lucrative infomercial – with gloves and ropes replacing ThighMasters and Deal-A-Meals.

But what it means for boxing is this generation’s single-best chance for a renaissance.

The sport was a black-and-white staple in the 1950s and rode that TV wave all the way into the ’80s, when regular Saturday afternoon shows on NBC – along with rivals ABC and CBS – made household names of Canastota-bound fighters like Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Alexis Arguello and Ray Mancini.

Network interest waned in the 1990s, though, and as the penetration of premium cable increased and the lure of pay-per-view windfalls became stronger, the idea of boxing on regular free television was retired to the same dusty shelf as leather helmets, unmasked goalies and good-field/no-hit shortstops.

Little man Leo Santa Cruz got CBS back in the game with a one-off weekend show two years ago, but the only routine appearances on a Big Three affiliate since then have been via NBC’s aforementioned cable arm, which debuted its Fight Night series following a rebrand from its days as Versus.

“That was just an amazing feeling,” said Garcia, who shared a stage with Leonard, Hearns and Roberto Duran when the project was announced. “It felt great to be up on the stage with all of those men who actually opened up the door for fighters like us.

“So to be able to fight on NBC, it feels like you’re being a throwback to the old world.”

The initial two Haymon cards are a quantum leap from those shows in terms of quality, but amid the fully justified hoopla, the return to an in-every-home network will also provide a litmus test whose answer – in the form of ratings – will go a long way toward determining the duration of the revelry.

If the momentum that comes from the first two broadcasts carries into the third, fourth, fifth and beyond, it’d be no surprise to see one of the other major players find a reason to work mouthpieces and ring-card girls into the weekly schedule. But if, contrary to Jones’ hype, the offering devolves from attractive hors d’oeuvre to bland entree and first-month lines around the block turn into half-empty dining rooms, it’ll just as clearly mandate a cab ride back to the 21st century marginalized niche.

Call it, America. Heads it’s The Tonight Show; tails it’s ESPN2.

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This week's title-fight schedule:

THURSDAY
WBC mini-flyweight title – Nakhon Sawan, Thailand
Wanheng Menayothin (champion/No. 3 IWBR) vs. Jeffrey Galero (No. 12 contender/No. 35 IWBR)
Menayothin (36-0, 12 KO): First title defense; Fourth fight against unbeaten opponent (3-0, 1 KO)
Galero (11-0, 5 KO): First title fight; Fourth fight against above-.500 opponent (3-0, 0 KO)
Fitzbitz says: It’s not easy to find a title-level fighter with a resume that’s decidedly less impressive than the Thai making his first defense, but the WBC has pulled it off. Menayothin by decision

Last week's picks: None
2015 picks record: 1-1 (50.0 percent)
Overall picks record: 640-224 (74.0 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.