PHILADELPHIA (AP) -The son of legendary football announcer John Facenda appears headed to trial in his lawsuit over NFL Films' use of his father's voice in a program about a John Madden video game.

A federal appeals court heard arguments Friday and strongly hinted that a jury should decide whether the 22-minute film was a commercial or a documentary - or perhaps, as one judge suggested, ``a documercial.''

John ``Jack'' Facenda Jr. is challenging the use of 13 seconds of his father's famous voice on an NFL Network program about the making of the 2006 Madden NFL game.

NFL Films holds the copyright © 2006 release of the popular Madden game. The game was not directly offered for sale during the program.

However, ``it alerts the average 14-year-old that the game will be in stores before September,'' said lawyer Paul Lauricella, who represents Facenda's only child.

The 69-year-old Facenda Jr. previously settled a lawsuit against the Campbell Soup Co. for using a Facenda-soundalike in radio and television ads.

Traces of his father's voice can be heard in the one-time Peace Corps volunteer, a longtime government poverty worker now retired on a farm in White Haven in northeast Pennsylvania.

The elder Facenda was a broadcasting icon in the Philadelphia area after a career in radio and TV that lasted from the 1930s to the early 1970s. He frequently pitched products on air, as broadcasters of his era did, his son said. Contracts frequently consisted of a handshake, he said.

``His interest is that nobody manhandles his father's voice, whether it's the NFL or anybody else,'' Lauricella said.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.