Monday Night Football Broadcast Team

[This Ain't Compton]

I watched the new Monday Night Football crew tonight. Pretty brutal stuff. I guess it's preseason for the announcers, too.

1. Mike Tirico : Was fine as the play-by-play man. It's still a little strange to have anyone but Al Michaels in this role. How long was Michaels play by play? 20 years?

Tirico will be fine. He's done enough big events (major bowl games, golf majors) that he doesn't seem out of place on a Monday night broadcast.

2. Joe Theisman : Has been bad since he put a headset on, and he'll be bad until he takes one off. Whether it's the need to point out the one time he's right all night...or his infamous habit of praising everyone on every team in the league...Theisman brings nothing to the broadcast.

In my mind, if an announcer isn't going to be technically good, he needs to at least be likable. Theisman just seems like a jerk. He is bad in every way possible.

Let me join the legion of viewers who wonder why the execs ever chose this guy for such a high profile position.

3. Tony Kornheiser : I like Kornheiser. But he wasn't very good in his first broadcast.

He tried to be low key. That meant his voice sound weak. It just didn't project well through the television. He sounded more like a local announcer than a primetime national analyst.

I'm used to Kornheiser on Pardon the Interuption, where he and Wilbon practically yell at one another for thirty minutes. My guess is he tried to tone it down to avoid sounding high-pitched and obnoxious. But that's kind of his act.

When Troy Williamson fumbled on the opening kickoff, Kornheiser said, "You don't want to fumble the opening kickoff." Eesh...they didn't get him to be Captain Obvious.

As the game went on, Tony did start to take a few swipes at Theisman. When Theisman started kissing the Vikings' front office's ass by telling how Brad Johnson is better than Dante Culpepper, Kornheiser voiced surprise and started to question Theisman on his logic. Several other tense dialogues followed, though the guys were being polite in the test run. This could get interesting.

I'll give Kornheiser a pass. He'll probably get better as the season goes on, since this is his first time as a color analyst (that I know of).

SUMMARY: The group had little chemistry. It was hard to distinguish voices at times, and the guys seemed like they were just going through the motions. There are several things a broadcast team needs to do to be good.

1. Convey the story of the game to the fans. Tirico will handle that competantly. His call of the final play of the OU-Michigan bowl game last year, where he got every player on the field right in an extremely confusing situation, shows he can handle the technical aspect of the call.

2. Give viewers insight they wouldn't otherwise think of themselves. This could be weak. Theisman isn't any good, and Kornheiser seemed to be stating the obvious and/or cliches all night.

3. Have an interesting dynamic in the booth.

An interesting broadcast booth needs one of two things.

One, the guys either need to like one another and give the viewers the sense they are having fun together. Or failing that, two, the guys need to hate one another and there needs to be constant tension. I would prefer the fun announcers, but I imagine we can only hold out hope for the second option.

I will give the first show a C-Minus. That may be kind, but it was their first outing together.

[Mighty Azathoth]

Kornheiser will no doubt take the blame when things don't work out. Then again, since MNF is no longer on ABC, maybe the new network won't be so willing to throw announcers under the bus because people changed the channel during a Bears/Packers snoozefest.
It still amazes me how many people were critical of Kornheiser before he even got on the mic. Dennis Miller and Rush Limbaugh didn't really have strong sports broadcasting backgrounds, but Kornheiser talks about sports for a living.
But mark my words, he'll become a scapegoat just like Dennis Miller (which was undeserved, in my opinion).

[Harvey]

I really don't like Theisman. A real jerk, just like Boomer Esiason, and equally annoying on the mic. They must know the right asses to kiss, though, as they always seem to be getting premium positions.

The media has already started to dogpile on Kornheiser, so I imagine that will continue all year. A columnist at his own paper wrote a scathing review, even suggesting that Mr. Tony get a tan. Kornheiser was not very thrilled, as he's recently battled skin cancer.

[Harvey]

Well, another week and the Kornheaiser hating continues. This time, one of his so-called best friends in the newspaper business wrote that he looked like a tater-tot with ears.