Lotus Geek :: Monday Night Football - new announcers (WTF?)...

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In case you hadn't heard, Monday Night Football - the franchise that has been on ABC for many many years - is moving from ABC to ESPN. I haven't heard who the new announcers were going to be; I was assuming (and hoping) that the staple of MNF play-by-play, Al Michaels, and John Madden - who many don't like, but I thought worked well with Michaels - would be returning. But today ESPN announced who the new MNF team would be. In the announcement, ESPN states...

Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser will be part of a three-man booth calling the games on Monday nights next season and Suzy Kolber and Michelle Tafoya will be sideline reporters.

Mike Tirico - I like him, seems like a good announcer.
Joe Theismann gets on my nerves - bad. Cannot stand to listen to him.
Never heard of Tony Kornheiser.

Great, so you go from two of the most recognized names in sports to one guy who is OK, an irritating player-has-been, and a complete unknown. Great job, ESPN. The only saving grace is that Suze Kolber will be involved - she is cute, but she's not just another pretty face - Suze knows her stuff, is a sports geek that can hang with any sports geeks, and she does a good interview. I am glad to see her a part of this, as she is the only part I will look forward to.

Rock
**Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?

Comments

1 - I'd rather have seen them keep "John Madden", but in the person of Frank Caliendo. His "incoherent rambling" is just as relevant to the game, but many, many times more entertaining.

Posted by Stan Rogers At 02:51:21 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

2 - @Tom - preach on, brother man - preach on.

Rock

Posted by Rock At 07:15:17 PM On 02/14/2006 | - Website - |

3 - I suspect it'll be like anything else. We'll just have to wait and see if the dynamic works or not. I agree with R.J. that 3 in the booth is just too many for the whole game. It's too easy to get side tracked and off the game which isn't always bad (like during injury time-outs or when they don't break to commercials) but overall it's just annoying. It's like sitting in a room listening to people you don't know talk to each other and you aren't invited to join.
And I respect Suzy, she seems to hold her own against the male dominated sports news world.

I just hope they don't turn it into another Best Damn Sports Show forumn with a game in the background.

Posted by Debbie At 11:05:03 AM On 02/09/2006 | - Website - |

4 - I think that the choices of Kornheiser and Theismann are interesting in that both of them fall in the "love/hate" category with little or no middle of the road comments. I love PTI, but I have no idea as to how well Tony will adapt to a much larger stage. Could be a "Dennis Miller" choice.

Posted by Gregg Eldred At 11:25:01 AM On 02/13/2006 | - Website - |

5 - Kornheiser writes for the Washington Post and co-hosts PTI on ESPN with Mike Wilbon (also of the Post). Never liked him or his writing. Tirico makes no sense...

Madden had already signed with NBC for the Sunday night games, and I could not see Michaels agreeing to "step down" to ESPN even though they run the show at ABC Sports now.

Posted by Christopher Byrne At 01:36:47 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

6 - Well Rock I'm afraid I'm going to go against the crowd here. Although I don't like PTI I really like Kornheiser in the Post and on the Radio. He does have a very dry sense of humor but certainly doesn't take himself seriously. And I'll go out on a limb here and say that knowing you for the last few years I think you'll like his sense of humor too - although maybe a sense of humor is not what you want to hear during a football game. For me there will be a 100% more likelyhood that I watch Monday night football !!

N.

Posted by Neil Agate At 05:26:37 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

7 - Suzy Kolber can't hold a candle to CBS Sports' Tracy Wolfson ( http://www.sportsline.com/cbssports/team/twolfson ). Not only much more knowledgeable than any other sideline reporter I have seen/known, she is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet, and she outbabes them all (apologies to her husband for that observation

). She replaced the ignorant blonde from hell who kept calling David Pollack "David Polock"...what was her name again????

Posted by Christopher Byrne At 02:29:44 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

8 - Three people in the broadcast booth is too many. It's a bad dynamic; all three feel as if they need to say something every play, and too often, it's redundant.

I avoid listening to Kornheiser's radio show, but being a booth announcer is a different set of skills, so maybe he'll be competent there.

Posted by R. J. Lesch At 03:04:34 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

9 - Thank the Lord!!! I am one of those people who think that John Madden should be taken out back and put our of our misery. I love Al Micheals' play by play, but Madden's incoherent rambling is not something that I will miss.

Being a Washingtonian by birth, I am very familiar with both Thiesman and Kornheiser. Kornheiser has a very sarcastic tone to his writing and views, but knows a lot more about sports than he ever let's on. If you didn't like Denis Miller in the booth, I wager that you won't like Tony K.

I agree that having Suzy K is quite the catch. I think she's one of the best sideline reports out there. Of course, if they added Seragusa, that would make it even better. He's so much better as a color commentator than I would have ever expected.

Sean---

Posted by Sean Burgess At 02:07:02 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |

10 - Theisman is an arrogant ass. He won't shut up and I hate when the announcers get into arguments with each other. I want to watch the f'ing game you @holes! SHUT UP! His voice is annoying too. Reminds me of "the most annoying noise in the world" from Dumb and Dumber.

tom

Posted by Tom At 04:19:09 PM On 02/14/2006 | - Website - |

11 - The reason this was done was because the NFL is shifting it's focus to the Sunday night game. Sunday Night Football is supposed to become what Monday Night Football used to be. A prime-time major network force.

They've been losing numbers every year at Monday night, and they wanted a change. Also, and I don't know when this goes into effect, but the NFL is trying to figure out a way to be able to shift games to that sunday night spot at their whim DURING the season.

This is to basically assure that the Sunday night game will be something that everyone wants to see. No more games with two bottom-dwelling teams that no-one wants to see. They will reschedule during the season based on what would be a hot matchup then.

Logistically I have no idea how that is going to work, or how they would pull that off, but that IS the plan.

Quite frankly, I HATE Joe Thiesman as an announcer and am glad he'll still be on cable...

-Grey

Posted by Greyhawk68 At 02:46:13 PM On 02/08/2006 | - Website - |