New MNF Team

You probably already know that Monday Night Football is moving to ESPN next season. What you didn't know is that the broadcast team will be all new, which ESPN announced today. Well, re-announced, since they'd already announced it after it was decided to move MNF to ESPN. Apparently Al Michaels had a change of heart, necessitating a larger change than was originally planned. The new team will be Mike Tirico as the play-by-play man with Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser providing color. Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber will be on the sidelines, as they were at Super Bowel XL. I'm going to miss the Sunday Night crew of Mike Patrick, Theismann, and Paul Maguire, who I thought should have just been moved to MNF. They were one of my favorite broadcast crews ever, though I know they had their detractors. Those people suck. Patrick is a better play-by-play guy than Tirico, Theismann stays, leaving Tony as the wild card. I love PTI, which will be on the road with the crew for every MNF game, but I don't know how well Kornheiser can do color commentary. PTI works because of the interaction of Kornheiser and Wilbon, alone either of them might be good but not great. And, as Kornheiser said, speaking as Howard Cosell, people are going to throw bricks at their TVs so they don't have to see his ugly mug in HD. If nothing else, Best Buy will end up happy.