Monday Night Football

Off Topic
1

I never thought I’d find an NFL telecast unwatchable, but that’s exactly what ESPN’s Monday Night Football is. I have not been able to make it through one broadcast.

First off, Joe Thiesmann. Is this guy the best they could do? I know he played in the league for a lot of years. But he does not seem to be able to make observations that that are not obvious, and he usually trips on his tounge doing that.

Mike Tirico? He’s okay. Nothing special. Non-discript. For some reason, I like him doing the college game but not so much the NFL. I don’t know why that is, but it is.

Tony Kornheiser. Get-him-out-of-there! When are they going to stop this stuff with putting these people in the booth. I don’t know what he adds. I don’t find him funny. I find it, well, odd. He keeps talking about his fantasy team and making the same old, idiotic ‘outsider’ observations that are just off base.

The overall presentation is bad. It seems to me that package that NBC has put together is outstanding. The graphics and replay are excellent and Al Michaels and Madden are a better broadcast team. And, BETTER GAMES!

Lastly, what is up with these INTERVIEWS that ESPN feels the need to do? So far they’ve had on some guy from Desperate Housewives, Hank Williams Jr., Jamie Fox, and I don’t know who else. These interviews are very…uncomfortable. Please make them stop?

2

I agree, although I don’t really think Madden was any better, he was at least funny because he makes no sense whatsoever half the time. I’ve found that if I put the game on mute and crank some music while doing my cooking for the week I can usually make it through most the game though. On a related note, does anyone else find the ESPN ad campaign for monday night football retarded? The whole “Is it monday yet?” thing drives me nuts. I, as a general rule, loathe the coming of monday as it means I have to work. I also love saturdays and sundays for football and rugby. Now they want me to be excited my favorite two days are over and I have to wait a whole week for them to come again? Monday night football’s supposed to make up for that? Come on guys, what morons do they have working in their ad department who thought up that idea?

3

I agree with Hack on this one. TK sucks. Theismann and Tirico are ok, but nothing special. The sideline reporting sucks and the interviews promoting ABC/Disney are downright awful.

What the hell business did Christian Slater have doing in the booth last week? I really hate seeing Matthew McConaughy every big Texas game, but at least he went there. Christian Slater admitted last week that his team (I forget which one b/c I really don’t care) wasn’t one of the ones playing. Yet he flew in specifically to be interviewed about some damn movie of his that’s coming out!

Enough with the shameless promotion during the games.

I miss the good-ole days of MNF. Hell, even the days with OJ in the booth were better.

DB

4

Tirico is definitely the best of that bunch but he can’t make up for the other two.

5

Better games? What are you talking about?
Tonight the entire country gets to watch our damn-near-unwatchable Buccaneers play the Panthers. I sat in over-priced club seats last week and watched the Bucs get thumped by the Saints. Now you too can share my pain.
That’s entertainment.

6

[quote]slt wrote:
Better games? What are you talking about?
Tonight the entire country gets to watch our damn-near-unwatchable Buccaneers play the Panthers. I sat in over-priced club seats last week and watched the Bucs get thumped by the Saints. Now you too can share my pain.
That’s entertainment.[/quote]

Well. All I can say is that tonights game trumps the Oakland/Seattle nightmare from last week. At least I can see why they SCHEDULED this game. I can’t see why Oakland got a Monday Nighter.

7

[quote]slt wrote:
Better games? What are you talking about?
Tonight the entire country gets to watch our damn-near-unwatchable Buccaneers play the Panthers. I sat in over-priced club seats last week and watched the Bucs get thumped by the Saints. Now you too can share my pain.
That’s entertainment.[/quote]

That may be true and I’m not disagreeing, but it would be so funny if the Buccs pulled a fast one on the Panthers tonight.

Linder

8

its a joke, whats with the interviews during the game i give a rats ass about these people i want to watch football.

9

[quote]Hack Wilson wrote:
I never thought I’d find an NFL telecast unwatchable, but that’s exactly what ESPN’s Monday Night Football is. I have not been able to make it through one broadcast.

First off, Joe Thiesmann. Is this guy the best they could do? I know he played in the league for a lot of years. But he does not seem to be able to make observations that that are not obvious, and he usually trips on his tounge doing that.

Mike Tirico? He’s okay. Nothing special. Non-discript. For some reason, I like him doing the college game but not so much the NFL. I don’t know why that is, but it is.

Tony Kornheiser. Get-him-out-of-there! When are they going to stop this stuff with putting these people in the booth. I don’t know what he adds. I don’t find him funny. I find it, well, odd. He keeps talking about his fantasy team and making the same old, idiotic ‘outsider’ observations that are just off base.

The overall presentation is bad. It seems to me that package that NBC has put together is outstanding. The graphics and replay are excellent and Al Michaels and Madden are a better broadcast team. And, BETTER GAMES!

Lastly, what is up with these INTERVIEWS that ESPN feels the need to do? So far they’ve had on some guy from Desperate Housewives, Hank Williams Jr., Jamie Fox, and I don’t know who else. These interviews are very…uncomfortable. Please make them stop?[/quote]

I don’t really have an opinion of Theismann. Tirico seems to be the most tolerable. He neither enhances or detracts from the broadcast. My main issue with MNF is Kornheiser. He’s horrendous. He adds absolutely no value to the broadcast, rather, he makes it worse by stating the obvious and more often, the irrelevant. What does it take to get a spot in the booth? This is getting ridiculous.

I agree that NBC has the best broadcast. Madden and Michaels are both competent, but mainly, the games are so much better. The studio crew seems to be the best as well, with Costas at the anchor. Certainly beats the circus of clowns on Fox.

10

yeah, its pretty terrible…i hate Theismann, and Tony K needs to stick with PTI…but its true that Madden wasn’t a whole lot better with his pointless descriptions…

11

Theismann and Tirico are okay. I would love to punch Kornheiser right in the mouth most of the game though. He’s a douche and my son makes more appropriate and insightful comments. Yea, and the games…Tampa Bay, Oakland. Yippee.

Giants and Bears would have been a Good Monday night game. Hell the Vikes played the Packers this weekend, why couldn’t we see that? Not that I care either way, but Tampa vs.
Carolina. 2-6 vs. 4-4. Who cares?

Then add lame ass commentary and interviews with more dumbasses. I felt bad for Jeff Gordon. His wife is Belgian, so they get him a waffle maker? Who thought that was clever?

12

I think that they keep trying to “re-create” Merideth, Gifford and Cossell…and it just won’t work.

I think that they just need the regular anchor, “color commentator” and sideline person and make sure they have chemistry.

As far as these actual three?

My tolerance is pretty high; and it was set VERY high by the extremely irritating PHIL SIMMS.

Has ANYBODY told this guy that he doesn’t have to comment after EVERY play and EVERY time a player or Coach scratches their ass? And then comment until he has beat a point to death???

I often want to say “Just SHUT UP and watch the damn game, Phil!”

Grrrrrr!!!

Mufasa

13

The masculine female commentators are the worst, though. Besides their general unatractiveness, their voices sound like they just smoked a carton of Marlboro’s.

It’s a also lame how they don’t show the cheerleaders anymore. I know they’re trying to be P.C., but who do they think they’re target audience is?