MNF RIP?
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Feb 8, 2006 8:59PM
Chicagoist always thought that right up there with death and taxes, Monday Night Football on ABC was one of life's certainties. But the NFL's recently negotiated new television deals that move the league's flagship game to a new home with an entirely new broadcast team. Yup, after 35 years on ABC, Monday Night Football is moving to cable.
ESPN will now broadcast MNF, with Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser calling the games. Chicagoist likes Tirico but he's not charismatic enough to headline a booth. He'd be a good second guy in the booth. We're not fans of Theismann. He was horrible when he did the Sunday night games on ESPN a few years back. And we don't like the idea of having Kornheiser in the booth. It's like ESPN is trying to repeat the Dennis Miller mistake, but this time picking a guy that has a little more sports cred. We forsee a booth battle where Kornheiser wants to talk to much, distracting from the game itself. Noticably absent from the MNF team is Al Michaels, who's been part of the MNF team since 1986.
Does that mean he'll end up at NBC? The Sunday Night game moves from ESPN to NBC, with John Madden heading the broadcast team. It's now looking like his Monday Night Football partner Al Michaels could be reuniting with him. Will that powerhouse team make the Sunday game the big game of the week instead of MNF?
Or has the idea of headlining Prime Time football come to pass? With the increased parity among the NFL team and the inability to get the required parties to agree to determining part of the Monday Night schedule once the season begins, there are as many stinkers as there are compelling games on MNF. In 2005, neither the Bears nor the Bengals played on Monday Night. Yet the Eagles, Packers and Jets made 8 appearances on MNF!
How many fans really wanted to see the Vikings-Packers matchup in Week 11? What if they had been able to move the Bears-Panthers or Colts-Bengals game to Monday Night? The league and the networks will probably continue to re-jigger the broadcasts trying to reclaim their dwindling audience. But until the game on the field is better that likely will never occur. Tony Kornheiser certainly isn't going to make a difference.
image via Yahoo!News