According to the AP, the new ESPN Monday Night Football crew will be Joe Theismann, Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser. Yes folks, you heard that correctly, Tony Kornheiser.
Tirico did an excellent job filling in for Mike Patrick early on this season, while he recuperated from ehart surgery, and should be a welcome addition to the booth, but Kornheiser?!?!?!
This is going to be interesting. Part of me says this could rival the Dennis Miller experiment for biggest booth debacle of all time, and part of me thinks it could be brilliant. We shall see.
Either way, I will miss hearing Theismann and Paul Maguire kibbitz like old ladies.
Personally, I loved Dennis Miller in the booth. Better than listening to Al Michaels explain the confluence of the Three Rivers to John Madden, whose mind doesn't seem to exist outside the vacuum of football.
Madden dumbs it down, Miller challenged people. He wasn't always funny and he was often obscure. But he wasn't boring at least.
I like Kornheiser. He's a shouter, but he's open minded and he's not afraid to voice an opinion.
I can do without Theisman, but then again, Theisman usually angered me because of the idiocy that he and Maguire produced in arguing like siblings.
Just as long as the sideline reporter isn't Eric Dickerson
I actually liked Miller too (I still can't see a guy with his ankles taped without thinking of his Christo reference) but I think most people hated him. Best advice I have for any game anyone cares about -- my husband seems to have figured out a way to run audio from the computer through the stereo so we can listen to the local radio call while watching the game on mute.
I know Madden signed on to NBC for Sunday Night, but what happens to Al Michaels??
Kornheiser is great on PTI, need to have him and Wilbon up in the booth together, that would be great. I wonder if that affects PTI at all with Korheiser doing MNF.
Tony Kornheiser being a MNF announcer is a HUGE mistake. He'll make fans long for Dennis Miller. I think Mike Patrick is a great announcer and deserves to be a part of MNF. He would have been a much better choice.
According to the AP, Michaels will also sign with NBC so he and Madden will remain together. Which makes sense since they didn't make a big deal out of their last broadcast for the Super Bowl.
I just hope the booth doesn't turn into a Redskins lovefest/hatefest with Kornheiser and Theismann. I don't want to hear about the Skins if they're not playing.
Speaking of the Skins, was at the Caps dismal gaem last night. Brunell was there with his kids and got booed when they put him on the jumbotron. DC fans are the classiest. His young kids were there people!
Good, I enjoy Madden and Michaels, I think they are the best tandem. I think Kornheiser could be real good, but I just worry about what that does to PTI.
I have friends in PG County. I obviously don't live too far, so they always find a way to bring them up. So I wouldn't know how to ignore them. My little bit of friends make it hard by themseleves, let alone a whole city of folks.
DC - I completely agree with your assessment on Tony Kornheiser. In fact, I left basically the same comment on someone else's blog about the new MNF crew. The other two guys, I can tolerate. But, I'm not so sure about Kornheiser. I guess I can't pass judgement until he gets a chance to prove himself. It'll be interesting to see how he does. For me, as long as he knows the game and can make insightful comments about the game, he'll do just fine.
I like Kornheiser, I think he's fantastic. Tirico is vanilla -- doesn't really add or take away anything from the table.
I don't really like Theisman, but it might be because I hate Paul Maguire. It'll be interesting to see if I like Theisman more just because he's with Kornheiser. Obviously, the analysis of the game isn't going to be that great -- if they wanted that, they should've gotten Fouts.
I don't know if Kornheiser will be good, but monday night football has been irrelevant for the past 20 years so I don't know if it matters.
Personally, I just would have hired Ernie, Charles and Kenny. And maybe add in Mark Cuban.
at least its not madden, michaels, musberger or keith jackson. and the list is about endless as far as i'm concerned. turico should be interesting, kornheiser, i cant really say, other than that pick came out of nowhere in my opinion. as for theismann, i didnt like him as a player, i liked him less as a sunday nite analyst, and i bet my life savings he'll be even worse on monday nite football. i'm not wild about the sideline reporters either. for the most part, its a waste of money to pay some airhead to ask the coach at halftime what he plans on doing to either get back in the game or continue to stay ahead in the second half. if they're going for the "sex appeal" by picking 2 women, they missed by about 5000 miles. the closest thing espn has for attractive women is erin andrews and that redhead who looks like her eyes are about to pop out of the sockets. (i think nicole is her 1st name, but it completely escapes me at the moment)
What is an ehart anyway and why did it require surgery? Oh.... you meant HEART. Just kidding DC.
Tony is being called upon to Cosell-ize the booth. The guy is corny as hell, but he has personality.
Someone needs to figure out how to mix network politics, salaries and the desire for big ratings when making these decisions.
Tirico comes across as very well respected, but extremely unspectacular. He will be invisible between those two. That is probably for the better because Madden's best days were with Pat.
Joe is a jerk. His ego never would have fit with Al Michaels anyway so now he has to butt heads with Tony.
The biggest challenge with these 3 is everyone trying to figure out how to spell their last names. I will call it it the TKT booth and the ratings are not going to be very good.
I'm willing to give this pairing an open mind for a game or two. But then Kornheiser wrote a fake Q&A in the Post this morning and the jokes were too awful. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy n/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006 020802176.html
Kornheiser is going to be great in this role. Tirico will do the filler, Theismann will have the thechnical, "been there done that, won the Super Bowl" portion and Tony is there for his comedic talents. Kornheiser is very funny and highly bright, but in a sophomoric, everyman way.
I like the move - though Phil Simms would have been a good call to replace Theismann.
I have to disagree on the Simms call. I really loathe him in the booth. He doesn't make sense half the time. I can take not making sense if it's funny, but most of the time when I listen to Simms I just think, "Huh?" Kind of the same reaction I used to have listening to Lou Holtz speak at ND pep rallies.
Last edited by DC_Domer on February 9th at 7:26 AM.
Really DC? I think he dumbs it down for the average viewer, instead of saying "Cover 2", he explains what the cover 2 is. That aspect of his announcing game is pretty good I think. My football IQ is pretty high, but occassionally they throw something out there and I am caught unawares.
Next time I'll pay close attention see if he does have the Lou Holtzian approach - if that's the case, I too share your sentiment.
I actually think it's what you just said that gets me. I understand explaining things for people, and think it's generally a good idea, but he is so long-winded and does it in such a roundabout way half the time I either lose him or tune him out.
I wrote a very in depth piece on this yesterday, but to summarize, I said it won't work, but it's brilliant to put Tony Kornheiser in the booth. Brings entertainment and conversation to football, which has down time and needs to be filled in after downs and breaks in the action. If you want to hear anymore, just read my post.
I am a chick who lives for sports -- football, hockey, college basketball, lacrosse, you name it.
As a girl from Baltimore married to a guy from Pittsburgh, my football loyalties and love for my husband are put to the test every weekend. Fortunately, he's an understanding guy.
As is our dog, who loves his football, and my beloved Irish.
