Monday Night Snark
October 17, 2006
Tony Kornheiser. You might have heard of him – stud sports columnist for The Washington Post, co-star of the hit TV show Pardon the Interruption and, starting this year, a new member of the Monday Night Football broadcasting trio of Joe “I Changed the Pronunciation of my Last Name to” Theismann, Mike Tirico and Kornheiser himself.
Thus far, Kornheiser, ESPN and the broadcasting trio as a whole have come under fire from the sports community for a few football broadcasting cardinal offenses.
ESPN has opted to shift the focus of the broadcast team from the X’s and O’s and providing insightful analysis on the game at hand to a more entertainment centered program. It’s not just a football game – it’s sports entertainment. Wait – isn’t this what professional wrestling is?
What’s interesting is that, on the eve of the first Monday of the new football season, ESPN had a Monday Night Doubleheader, as they advertised it – two different games with two different broadcast teams. The “A Squad” of Kornheiser, Theismann and Tirico covered one game, with the “B Squad” of former NFL coach Dick Vermeil and former NFL Quarterback and ESPN employee Ron Jaworski providing the color commentary with Brad Nessler handling the play by play.
The A Squad focused on the entertainment angle, trying to conjure up a laugh here and there yukking it up about nothing in particular, while the B Squad focused on the X’s and O’s, the crux of the game itself, and told you not only how things appeared to them on the field, but why they happened.
Guess what? The B Squad was infinitely more enjoyable, interesting and bearable than the recycled garbage we here from Theismann and Co. every week. Revelation of the week – when you focus on the game itself in a broadcast, good things happen!
Kornheiser, himself, has come under fire from the circle of sports journalists for being tentative and tight-lipped – something he readily admits in the link above. Something has been lost in the transition to Monday Night – whether it’s because he’s still getting his feet wet or for some other reason, I don’t know, but this broadcasting team, Kornheiser, hype and all, is floundering big time.
Perhaps it’s time ESPN sent Squad A on an all expenses paid vacation to the film room, meanwhile promoting Vermeil and Crew to talk about what really matters – the game.
