Kornheiser to MNF?

[Cujo]

Let Mike Patrick do it!

Oh wait, id rather kill myself.

Mike? ... or did you mean Dan Patrick??

Either way, save another bullet for me.

[DGivens87]

I wish Dick Enberg and either Dan Dierdorf and/or Bob Trumpy could do MNF...

Dick Enberg - one of the best announcers IMO.

"Oh my!"

[Waffles]

It's official...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2323121

Kornheiser, Tirico and Theismann

[no97]

Anyone who listens to Kornheisers XM show (or his Washington DC based show for that matter), has listened to him, for the last two days, talk about how aweful he would be for the job. At the same time, he has talked about how he would have to change his life in reguards to travel (you know Seattle is going to host a couple games next year), his schedule (the guy can't stay up past 9 p.m. eastern to watch games to talk about them on PTI) and how the money would make it impossible for him to turn down the job.

Clearly, the money won out.

Personaly, I love his radio show (I record it every day on my XM myFi, and listen back when I can), and will watch him on MNF just to see what he can do. I could have lived with-out Theisman, but Tireco is as solid a p-b-p man as ESPN's had in the college package...

Moose

[Intimidator85]

I'm thrilled about having Tirico do the games. I think he's an excellent broadcaster and he brings a lot of enthusiasm to the game. He does a very good job on the Thursday night college football games and I hope it can all translate into good work on Monday Night Football. I guess the only other question will be who will replace Tirico on Thursday.

The rest of the cast I'm not so thrilled about. I make it an effort to not watch Pardon the Interruption because Kornheiser (and his colleague Wilbon) are so obnoxious and boisterous. I think we should not be so soon to say Kornheiser knows what he's talking about. Like Dennis Miller, Kornheiser has not played or coached a down in the NFL, so the two of them know about the same amount of information.

I've never been a Joe Theismann fan, either. He can sometimes be too condescending towards the players on the field. There's a way to tell us what a team or a player is doing wrong without chewing them out on national TV. He's been a quarterback, so he can at least provide us with good analysis on what both sides are doing during the game.

Tirico is a good addition, but I wish they would have brought in others to do the color and analysis, such as a former coach or a defensive player. Yet, this is what we have. It won't matter, anyway. ESPN will soon learn that it's not the analysts that make or break the ratings, but it's whether the game is any good.

[rockchalk]

I think we should not be so soon to say Kornheiser knows what he's talking about. Like Dennis Miller, Kornheiser has not played or coached a down in the NFL, so the two of them know about the same amount of information.

First off, that's a little bit of a stretch, because Kornheiser has made his money being a sports columnist for a major newspaper, while Miller was a comedian who happened to be a pretty decent sports fan. (For the record, I did like that crew quite a bit, because with Dennis Miller, Al loosened up and it was one of the few times he has for his whole career) Anyway, I'm not sure, I think this'll be something I'll have to see to make a true judgment.

On the other hand, does this mean that NBC will end up getting a complete baseball package full-time now? Having Al Michaels and Bob Costas both in your stable of announcers and not have a couple baseball games every week and the playoffs just doesn't seem likely. I doubt Al will be doing Notre Dame and the SNF game at the same time, and will he really be doing NHL or Arena Football?

[BB61]

Tirico? Great choice. Good solid play-by-play guy, and easy to take.

Theissman? There are better color guys out there, but there are worse.

Kornheiser? What, was Ricki Lake unavailable? Don't get me wrong, I love him on PTI, and if he's the same character on MNF that he is on his normal show, it's going to be horrible. I agree with whomever said it up there, he's a better writer than anything.

[ClutchIsEverything]

I like this team quite a bit. I think it has a nice balance. I really like Mike Tirico as the pbp guy, he is one of my favorites.

Tony K in the booth has potential. He will be great if he just says whatever he wants. Dennis Miller in the booth had great promise, and was very entertaining at times, but you could tell he had to bite his tounge so many times since he didn't want to hear it from the NFL and he would have to be working with these players for the entire year. If you just had Miller's comments whlie he was sitting at home watching the game on the sofa, that would have been perfect, but that couldn't happen. But I think Tony K could really work, I'm looking forward to it. Perhaps he will set up that dish yet.

[rams80]

Anyone who listens to Kornheisers XM show (or his Washington DC based show for that matter), has listened to him, for the last two days, talk about how aweful he would be for the job. At the same time, he has talked about how he would have to change his life in reguards to travel (you know Seattle is going to host a couple games next year), his schedule (the guy can't stay up past 9 p.m. eastern to watch games to talk about them on PTI) and how the money would make it impossible for him to turn down the job.

Clearly, the money won out.

Personaly, I love his radio show (I record it every day on my XM myFi, and listen back when I can), and will watch him on MNF just to see what he can do. I could have lived with-out Theisman, but Tireco is as solid a p-b-p man as ESPN's had in the college package...

Moose

I'd expect to see Seattle on Sunday Night more than Monday Night (since Sunday is now the primary prime-time NFL package).

Personally I expect the Patriots to be on MNF 5 times next season, limiting travel (because ESPN airs it and they want us all to be reminded how we should love the Patriots and worship Tom Brady as our God and football Savior. )

As for the broadcast team, it will be interesting to see Kornheiser covering the game (I love him on PTI). Tirico should be good, and Theisman tolerable. Question though-how are they going to handle PTI on Mondays?

[jkrdevil]

I think we should not be so soon to say Kornheiser knows what he's talking about.  Like Dennis Miller, Kornheiser has not played or coached a down in the NFL, so the two of them know about the same amount of information.

First off, that's a little bit of a stretch, because Kornheiser has made his money being a sports columnist for a major newspaper, while Miller was a comedian who happened to be a pretty decent sports fan. (For the record, I did like that crew quite a bit, because with Dennis Miller, Al loosened up and it was one of the few times he has for his whole career) Anyway, I'm not sure, I think this'll be something I'll have to see to make a true judgment.

On the other hand, does this mean that NBC will end up getting a complete baseball package full-time now? Having Al Michaels and Bob Costas both in your stable of announcers and not have a couple baseball games every week and the playoffs just doesn't seem likely. I doubt Al will be doing Notre Dame and the SNF game at the same time, and will he really be doing NHL or Arena Football?

I would guess that NBC might pick up the baseball contract. I don't think AL would do hockey Play-by-play because NBC already has 3 guys who are primarliy hockey announcers and all of them are top hockey announcers. Maybe he would be the studio host for the Cup Finals. After all he was the studio host for the Stanley Cup Finals for the first few years when ABC had the contract.

He will mostly do Sunday Night Football and future Olympic coverage. Probably not more than that becasue I don't see him challenging Costas as the number 1 guy for NBC Sports.

I think the MNF team will do alright. Kornheiser isn't Miller he's a sports writer. He'll be like Cosell was just without controversy.

[Juddley]

I didn't even realize that Al Michaels left ABC/ESPN...I thought he was still under contract.

[SteveR]

I didn't even realize that Al Michaels left ABC/ESPN...I thought he was still under contract.

He was. When the new NFL TV deals were announced last summer, Al accepted the deal to stay with ABC/ESPN because he felt "Monday Night Football" still resonated with the public.

But he started having second thoughts when it was announced that NBC had secured MNF's producer and director to do the SNF telecasts.

Today's announcements -- they also named Mike Breen the primary PxP for NBA on ABC -- show they've released Michaels from his commitments.

So it'll be Michaels and Madden in the booth with Bonnie Bernstein on the sidelines and Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth doing studio pre-game.

(We're lucky. If this hadn't happened, NBC was grooming Collinsworth for play-by-play!)

In another move, did you know James Brown was switching from Fox pre-game to CBS pre-game?

[nsentv]

Get rid of Theissman.

With that being said, the best part of this is the fact that Mike Breen will be doing the NBA Finals. For the first time since 2002, someone who actually knows something about the NBA will be doing play-by-play for the Finals.

Also, this is great for Tirico. Despite his mistakes early on (i.e., the early 90s suspension), he's one of the classiest guys ESPN has in its stable. He's great at play-by-play for football, basketball and golf, and he's a generally likeable guy. As for TK, he can either be really good or really bad. We'll see.

[brinkeguthrie]

what suspension?

[JQK]

I'm not thrilled about Tirico. He never seemed to stand out as a play-by-play man.

I like Theismann.

I think Korheiser can be the reincarnation of Howard. I think he has that sharp as a tack wit and is even-kieled enough to bring forth an entertaining broadcast without having to jump around like a monkey, the way current broadcasters seem to do in spades.

I think this is the best MNF Team since Howard, Don, and Frank. Let's see if i'm right.

[Brian in Boston]

Good God! I'll be muting the television on Monday nights.

No offense, JQK, but Howard, Don and Frank should sue for defamation of character.

Tirico is a solid choice as the play-by-play announcer. He'll come across as a bit more polished than Frank might have, and he'll also likely exhibit a bit more of a propensity for trying to come up with a clever turn of phrase. He's not going to blow you away with his game call. Then again, that's not the play-by-play guy's job... particularly in a three-man booth. He's there to give you the down and distance and "direct the traffic" with regard to getting everyone a chance to talk. Whether he'll be up to the latter task given the other, "over-sized" personalities in this booth... well, that's open to debate.

Theismann is a horrible color commentator. He's smug, condescending and seems to contradict his partners in the booth solely because he believes that the telecast requires some sort of "conflict". The problem is that with Theismann orchestrating conflict for that reason it can't help but come across as blatantly manufactured... i.e. phony. It wears thin very quickly. As for comparisons to Don Meredith... he has none of the "down home" Everyman qualities that "Dandy Don" possessed (or, at the very least, managed to project).

As for Kornheiser, he's the very best example of why every print journalist shouldn't be given a chance to pursue a broadcast career. His voice is annoying... his attitude is annoying... his lame attempts at humor are annoying. If this guy were half as clever as he THINKS he is, maybe - MAYBE he'd be tolerable. Unfortunately, as it stands, he's not even a sixteenth as clever as he thinks is. Which is the biggest difference between Cosell and Kornheiser. Cosell was every bit as clever as he thought he was. Which is why, whether you loved him or you hated him, Cosell's larger-than-life (including an annoying voice, attitude and sense of humor) persona worked. It WAS Howard.

In my honest opinion, this broadcast team has "train-wreck" written all over it.

[JQK]

I disagree.

[brinkeguthrie]

I wish Dick Enberg and either Dan Dierdorf and/or Bob Trumpy could do MNF...

Dick Enberg - one of the best announcers IMO.

"Oh my!"

Dick Enberg. Isn't he 700 years old?

[Jigga]

what suspension?

Oh it's true, peeps.

Mike Tirico was indeed suspended in 1991 or 92 for his improper behavior toward female colleagues. I can't remember the length, but it wasn't long at all, 2 or 3 months or something? Bueller? Anyone?

There's a smarmy, whiney, feeble attempt at an tell-all expose called ESPN: The Uncensored History from a few years back or some like that. It's a terrible, borish read, but some of the ESPN haters may just want to pick it up...you'll love it.

[NJTank]

I cant believe they let go fo Michaels.