Last Monday night, while out at a local establishment, a woman approached me to tell me she "can’t stand the Monday Night Football announcers and after 20 years of watching I would rather watch the game with the volume down because these men would have Howard Cosell spinning in his grave."
Ma’am, sorry, but some things will never be the same again.
Gas won’t go back to $1 a gallon, milk won’t get delivered to your doorstep, and Monday Night Football isn’t the weekly "can’t miss" event that it once was back when Cosell, "Dandy" Don Meredith and Frank Gifford graced the first weekday night with their presence.
 With TV football commentators like Charlottesville resident Howie Long all over the networks, Monday Night Football’s stardom has long faded. |
Monday Night Football is just really another football game, a night cap on our great weekly football date.
For decades, Monday Night Football wasn’t just a game. It was an experience. Dashing were the looks of Gifford, and dumbfounding though it was at times, Cosell and Meredith proved opposites do attract.
Things change.
Gas went to $3. Milk is at your corner gas station and the other networks have upped the ante on their football broadcasts at the same time that Monday primetime options no longer fear the once big, bad football game.
Monday nights used to have star power. Gifford was Hollywood looks. Cosell was potential controversy every time he opened his mouth. The stars now align everywhere as other networks have countered with the likes of Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw. NBC laid out a straight flush of former Monday Nighters Al Michaels and John Madden along with Tiki Barber, Jerome Bettis and Bob Costas for its Football Night in America on Sunday.
Cosell proved opinions create sparks. Football Night in America’s former commentator, Dennis Miller, failed, and now former ESPNer turned MSNBC host Keith Olbermann is trying his best to succeed. If people want the MNF of old, Football Night in America, which juiced up its average Sunday night viewership to 17.7 million last year, might be as close as they’re going to get.
ESPN, which now controls MNF, jettisoned Joe Theisman after only one year and brought in former quarterback Ron Jaworski for his football expertise to the booth of Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser. Tirico calls the play by play. "Jaws" is the X AND O guy. Kornheiser is chock full of opinions and flare, causing entertainment critics to strongly accuse ESPN of trying to re-create a Cosellian-like presence in the booth.
Kornheiser isn’t Cosell. (It didn’t hurt my argument that he did a Howard impersonation on opening night.) And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Monday Night used to be what it used to be and doesn’t have to be again. These days, MNF stands out only because it stands alone.
The common denominator of NBC, CBS and ESPN is the fact that they carry football. Football carries football. The show is the game. Announcers like Madden will forever split the field—some like his jovial presence and some only hear a man who spews the obvious. Has any one football fan stopped watching his team because he didn’t like the announcer?
MNF has other things to worry about. After years of losing the ratings game to "Ally McBeal" and "Everybody Loves Raymond," football now tangles with ratings dominator "CSI Miami," Emmy-nominated "Two and Half Men," and last year’s popular hit, "Heroes."
The MNF booth, no matter who’s in it, receives the most criticism when it’s compared to what it once was. Like long-winded announcers, the critics are wasting their breath.
Wes McElroy hosts "The Final Round" on ESPN AM840. Monday-Friday, 4pm-6pm.