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ESPN: More football in "Monday Night Football"

Neil Best

September 7, 2008

The people spoke. The sports media critics spoke. Heck, Howard Cosell would have spoken if someone had handed him a microphone.

What's important is that ESPN listened. Finally.

After two seasons of inviting not-always-relevant guests into its booth and of forcing not one but two sideline reporters into a telecast that already featured three game announcers, ESPN plans to remake its "Monday Night Football" approach for 2008.

It's a radical concept, really, one that can be summed up in one word:

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football.

"We went out across the country, Chicago, San Diego, Boston, to really figure out what fans wanted," producer Jay Rothman said. "And I think we became more aligned with what fans want versus what we thought they want. It's as simple as that."

What ESPN thought "casual" fans wanted was distractions the die-hards who actually were watching didn't want to see.

As Rothman said, "We are a sports network covering a football game; people can get on 499 other channels, on TiVo, on demand and online."

With that, booth guests were shown the door for good, including both the ridiculous (Christian Slater, Jay-Z) and the sublime (Deanna Favre).

Brett Favre would have been an exception for the opener in Green Bay, but now he will be otherwise occupied. If there are booth guests - perhaps President George W. Bush on Election Day eve - they likely will be welcome only at halftime.

As for sideline reporters Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber, they still will be in the building, still will report pregame and still will be available to share major developments during games.

But no longer will the boys in the booth throw it to one of them during the action for a heartwarming, human-interest story gleaned during practice days earlier.

How do the game announcers feel about all this? Quite good, thank you.

"I'm a football fan who loves everything about the game itself; the more football stuff the better for me," play-by-play man Mike Tirico said.

Tirico said criticism of extras such as booth guests was overstated at times, but he made it clear he favors the new look.

"I do think getting the game to be the main part of what we're doing is something that sits well with me as a football fan," he said. "The three of us will probably have more time to have conversations on issues relating to what's in front of us."

While Tirico can worry less about being a ringleader and Tony Kornheiser should benefit from having more time to develop story lines, the biggest beneficiary will be X's and O's man Ron Jaworski.

ESPN is planning new technological toys designed to elevate him.

"We have all kinds of great bells and whistles, but they're football-related bells and whistles," he said. "We'll show stuff about the game."

Of last season's approach, Jaworski said, "Many times, from my perspective, it was hard to get a flow for the game. I'm the guy delivering the X's and O's, why a play didn't work, or why it did. It's hard to go four or five plays and not get a word in because we're on the sideline or with a booth guest, then pick it up from there and bring everyone up to speed.

"I'll be honest, that was difficult to do. Now it's going to be focused on the three of us in the booth, on the game, which is what people have told us they want."

ESPN often is accused of arrogance, but it was willing to admit mistakes were made in handling its most expensive and important franchise.

"I truthfully believe we tried to over-deliver," Rothman said. "If we were guilty of anything, it was trying too hard, really. It's as simple as that."

One of the eye-openers for ESPN was the reaction of fans to Charles Barkley's visit to the booth, which at the time was considered a shining example of the genre.

"Barkley didn't resonate," Rothman said. "He's an entertaining guy. He's a funny guy. But he's not a football guy."