ESPN Monday Night Football Proves to Be Lackluster

When the announcement came that Monday Night Football would no longer be aired on ABC many football fans were understandably dismayed. Al Michaels and John Madden were two of the most cohesive commentators in all of sports, let alone football, and before news that the tandem was traveling to NBC to do Sunday Night Football, things looked awfully bleak

For fans of ESPN's brand of Sunday Night Football, this also meant that the team of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann, and Paul Maguire would be broken up. The trio was arguably the best National Football League commentators and had developed a notable camaraderie since 1988, when the show made its debuted. The team that would be taking over and commentating for the new Monday Night Games would consist of one third of the Sunday Night Football team in Joe Theismann, joined by Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico. The result would be sub par.

While Joe Theismann remains a more than adequate color commentator, albeit sometimes overly critical of players, Kornheiser's brand of comedy is usually hit or miss-with most occasions involving a miss by miles. Spells of silence have been known to follow a sorry joke on several occasions, hinting at the lack of cohesiveness between the commentators. Though over the weeks it has improved, as could have been expected, Kornheiser's antics feel forced upon the audience. The result is somewhat shocking when compared to the humor he displays on Pardon the Interruption, with friend Michael Wilbon.

Mike Tirico is not bad by any means, but he does feel out of place doing play-by-play for an NFL game. This is also surprising as this is no the first time Tirico has done the play-by-play for a football game. Even with his prior experience, it is clear that Tirico's talent is within NBA Telecasts, where he thrives with a knack for calling the games, something that is absent in his football telecasts.