# ESPN Killing Monday Night Football **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723 "2006-10-24T16:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/21 "2006-10-24T23:41:14Z")
ABC Sports has lost their minds. They were killing MNF before they handed it off to ESPN. They complain every single year that ratings are down for MNF and their answer is to ‘spice it up’ with inane commentary and plug their other shows. The human interest bits are an absolute snore. Maybe if they show football and talk about football, some of us would tune in. Of course, Maybe if they show games people want to watch, people will tune in. After the Eagles and Packers stellar 2005 records what sort of jackass arranged for that to be on Monday night? Green Bay/Seattle? What? Oakland/Seattle?Double what? Jets/Miami? On Christmas day? ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/22 "2006-10-25T00:27:38Z")
My biggest complaint is that the MNF crew totally ignored Terrell Owens. Why, I don’t think they mentioned him more than 400-500 times, tops. What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Willow\_Plate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@Blue\_Willow\_Plate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Willow_Plate)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/23 "2006-10-25T01:09:51Z")
I’ve always been and probably always will be a football fan, but watching this summer’s soccer World Cup and comparing it to American football perfectly illustrates why I’ll never attend another Vikings game and why I’ll no longer just sit down and watch a football game on the tube. I’m tired of beer ads and that stupid Aflac duck, and I’m tired spending $40 to watch 20 minutes of action and 3 1/2 hours of fat men adjusting their packages on the sidelines during television time outs. I want to watch a SPORT, for fuck’s sake, not an advertiser’s wet dream. :mad: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/24 "2006-10-25T01:54:10Z")
Add to that the “high tech” cut-aways to the commercials and the theme music that is played over and over. There is no way to get really absorbed in the game. It drives me nuts. _I want to watch the game!_ ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Willow\_Plate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@Blue\_Willow\_Plate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Willow_Plate)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/25 "2006-10-25T02:05:24Z")
I apologize. I was wrong about something. I was curious and did some Googling, thinking that perhaps I was short-shrifting NFL players, so I found an actual number. [QUOTE=Blue Willow Plate] …I’m tired spending $40 to watch 20 minutes of action and 3 1/2 hours of fat men adjusting their packages on the sidelines during television time outs. [/QUOTE] It’s not actually 20 minutes of play. It’s TWELVE. [http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=other/misc/charles/twelve\_minutes.htm](http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=other/misc/charles/twelve_minutes.htm) [http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=other/misc/charles/warhol\_15minutes.htm](http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=other/misc/charles/warhol_15minutes.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/26 "2006-10-25T02:30:08Z")
Meh, it still beats the [less-than-ten minutes](http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/special_packages/starmagazine/15165923.htm) that a baseball is in play. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/27 "2006-10-25T03:17:35Z")
[QUOTE=Max Torque] it still beats the [less-than-ten minutes](http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/special_packages/starmagazine/15165923.htm) that a baseball is in play. [/QUOTE] If you’re only interested when a ball’s in play, you definitely need to look for another sport. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/28 "2006-10-25T05:47:02Z")
[QUOTE=cormac262] But the ESPN coverage overall is just horrid. The worst so far was the BIG return to New Orleans (Saints vs. Falcons) game. EVERY frickin’ thing was symbolically tied in with the rebuilding of the city: “Drew Brees commitment to live in New Orleans is symbolic of the spirit of the city…”, “the Saints making that last first down was like the city rising from the ashes of Katrina…” (made that up, but you get the gist). What started out as “moving” was quickly beaten to death. It became unbearable. [/QUOTE] I was asking myself: “Who the hell produced this shit? The same guy who does NBC’s Olympic coverage?” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/29 "2006-10-25T06:15:32Z")
[QUOTE=Xema] If you’re only interested when a ball’s in play, you definitely need to look for another sport. [/QUOTE] Word. Strategy has to count for something. How much time is the ball actually in motion during a round of golf? Five to eight seconds per stroke, maybe ten on a drive? Even if we’re generous and allow ten seconds per stroke, that still comes out to less than eight minutes per round that the ball would be moving on a par 72 course. If the only enjoyment from watching the game came from those few minutes it would be boring indeed, yet we all know that so much more is involved than the execution of the shots - the strategy, the club selection, the manner in which a golfer thinks his way around corners, etc. The same goes for baseball and football. The chess match can be just as compelling, if not more so, than the “action” itself. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/30 "2006-10-25T06:26:47Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] I’m committed to my Giants, so I’ll watch once more this year, but I think I’ll listen to the game on the radio. [/QUOTE] > [@cormac262](#): > > To the point where, last week, I even tried to tune in the audio from the radio coverage, and muted the sound on the TV. The only problem was that there was enough of a delay (not sure if intentional or not - backlash from the Janet Jackson thing or what), but the radio play-by-play was ahead of the TV action just enough to make the TV coverage unwatchable (you knew a pass was dropped before the throw). I was prepared ahead of time, having seen the abysmal MNF announcing the week before in the Bears-Cards game. So at the kickoff, I turned down the tv volume and cranked up WFAN’s radio broadcast. Bob Pappa, the Giants radio play-by-play man, is fantastic. For comparison, check out any Monday morning Sportscenter “Pump Up the Volume” segment where they give you radio snippets from around the league. A typical one seems to be: “He throws…touchdown!!!” Bob Pappa is more along these lines: “Offset I; Shockey motions from left to right; Manning drops back, steps right to avoid the pressure, throws deep, has a man down the sideline, Burress with an amazing catch!” He gives so much detail, and it’s so immediate, that I am in awe of him. As mentioned, the sync is not perfect; the television seems to have .75 seconds of a delay over the radio judging by the times when the camera shows you a ref explaining a penalty. Bob Pappa is a little _too_ good, decribing events about a half-second after they happen, so he starts a sentence just as the action he’s describing is shown on screen. But they don’t do ANY non-game bits; no interviews at all. And it’s a Giants broadcast, so it’s all Giants, all the time. No TO soap opera, no Parcells historical crap. It’s either in-depth discussion of the action on the field, or discussion of the Giants players. Countless times they were describing the exact apparent severity of an injury or exactly who was open\* or who made a great play while the tv guys were interviewing people. And they don’t take as many commerial breaks, and the ones they do end sooner. So while I’m still watching a car commercial, I’m listening to Bob Pappa describe the formation that is being lined up. I highly recommend the WFAN broadcast for all Giants fans in the tri-state area. At this point I don’t plan on listening to the television broadcast ever again, despite really liking some of the Fox “b” teams. (Sam Rosen’s team is great, and there’s another I’m forgetting that rocks.) \*For example, when the flea-flicker got deflected, did you know that Terrell Owens was wide open, having beaten his man by 10 yards streaking down the field? Guaranteed touchdown without the deflection. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/31 "2006-10-25T08:02:09Z")
I’ve just read through all the comments in this thread, and quite frankly…I’m baffled. Totally baffled. Baffled out of my wits. I’ve seen more than a few moronic decisions, most memorably the '98 Winter Olympics (a.k.a When CBS Finally Completely Lost Their Minds), but there’s always a reason, however flimsy. This…this is _football_. Big men, big hits, blood, pain, oodles of macho manliness. That’s how it is; that’s how it’ll always be. No point whatsoever in denying this. There’s simply _no place_ for sappiness and celebrity worship during a game. None a tall. So if you gotta have human interest and interviews and big speeches about a city rising from the waters and putting the spotlight on Terrell Owens for Orochi knows what reason, why not have…oh…a **pregame show**? Y’know, the way this junk gets handled on Sunday. Hey, someone mentioned a channel once putting together a 3-hour pregame show for a _preseason game_; setting aside an hour on Monday would be nothing. C’mon, I can’t be the first person who’s thought of this. I mean, what else are they going to show in that hour? More flippin’ poker? P.S. Re. the Hank Williams Jr. intro…I liked it better when it had _one_ set of lyrics, a simple beat, and, most importantly, less than 90 seconds of running time. Honestly, nowadays he sounds like he’s doing the national anthem. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/32 "2006-10-25T10:00:38Z")
I’ll add to the pile on. Fox absolutely killed post season baseball coverage and I’m almost ignoring the World Series this year. I think it was 2003 when you absolutely could not escape the hype for girls club, a show that lasted 2 episodes or so. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/33 "2006-10-25T11:55:05Z")
[QUOTE=DKW] So if you gotta have human interest and interviews and big speeches about a city rising from the waters and putting the spotlight on Terrell Owens for Orochi knows what reason, why not have…oh…a **pregame show**? Y’know, the way this junk gets handled on Sunday. Hey, someone mentioned a channel once putting together a 3-hour pregame show for a _preseason game_; setting aside an hour on Monday would be nothing. [/QUOTE] Because absolutely no one would watch it, which brings up a good point. If something isn’t interesting enough to watch in and of itself (owner interviews, human interest stories, etc.), why force people to watch it by interweaving it within a program they do want to watch? You don’t _need_ to pad the game with filler. Personally, I’d like to see more analysis of individual plays, more detail explaining why plays worked or didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/34 "2006-10-25T13:12:52Z")
Sadly, **Ellis** , the delay is noticable on digital cable. It’s enough that I could listen to the radio in one room, hear the play, and then go to a TV in another room to catch it. It’s 4-5 seconds minimum. Those with non-digital cable don’t have the same issue. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/35 "2006-10-25T13:27:35Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] I’ll add to the pile on. Fox absolutely killed post season baseball coverage and I’m almost ignoring the World Series this year. I think it was 2003 when you absolutely could not escape the hype for girls club, a show that lasted 2 episodes or so. [/QUOTE] It’s quite simply, really. NBC should be Constitutionally banned from having the Olympics and Fox should be Constitutionally banned from having baseball. That said, I don’t have Sirius, though I do have XM. So I can put the video of the baseball game, listen to the ESPN radio feed (or one of the teams’ announcers) and I sync it all up by using the DVR. There are different delays for the XM satellite and the Dish Network satellite, but it’s closer than when I was watching the game on broadcast. Then the XM audio was way behind. I’d do exactly the same for football if I had Sirius as well. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/36 "2006-10-25T13:31:28Z")
[QUOTE=Blue Willow Plate] I’ve always been and probably always will be a football fan, but watching this summer’s soccer World Cup and comparing it to American football perfectly illustrates why I’ll never attend another Vikings game and why I’ll no longer just sit down and watch a football game on the tube. I’m tired of beer ads and that stupid Aflac duck, and I’m tired spending $40 to watch 20 minutes of action and 3 1/2 hours of fat men adjusting their packages on the sidelines during television time outs. I want to watch a SPORT, for fuck’s sake, not an advertiser’s wet dream. :mad: :mad: [/QUOTE] Have you ever noticed that the soccer UNIFORMS in England have advertisers on them? Talk about an advertiser’s wet dream. Besides, I just disagree about stoppages being a problem. What happens during the stoppages in a football game is the most interesting part of the game. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/37 "2006-10-25T14:02:54Z")
[QUOTE=PoorYorick] Because absolutely no one would watch it, which brings up a good point. If something isn’t interesting enough to watch in and of itself (owner interviews, human interest stories, etc.), why force people to watch it by interweaving it within a program they do want to watch? You don’t _need_ to pad the game with filler. Personally, I’d like to see more analysis of individual plays, more detail explaining why plays worked or didn’t work. [/QUOTE] ESPN seems to be doing this a lot. Heck, they even do it with PTI. PTI runs as normal for about 20 minutes, then they cut away to Sportscenter for 10 minutes, and then it’s back to PTI. It would really piss me off even more if it wasn’t for that fact that I’m recording PTI at 3:30 PM local time so I just skip through it on the DVR. Look, ESPN, if the ratings for 6 PM Sportscenter suck, live with it. Don’t go making wonky programming changes in an attempt to hook people into watching Sportscenter by making it more of a pain in the ass to watch what they really want to watch. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/38 "2006-10-25T16:00:22Z")
I keep hoping that someone with a pulse at ESPN will notice that Joe Theismann couldn’t analyze taking a crap, much less football, and will replace him with Ron Jaworski. Jaws was amazing on the MNF B-team at the start of the year for the Raiders game. Kornheiser’s problem is that admittedly, he’s not a football guy. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/39 "2006-10-25T16:35:26Z")
**brianjedi** you’re almost right about Kornheiser. Admittedly, he’s not a football guy so I can cut him a hair of slack. He is a sports guy though, so he only gets a hair of slack. His real problem is that he won’t shut up. Ever. And he’ll thrash the living crap out of a long deceased horse. If he wanted to be Cosell he’d be provocative, insightful, combative, and informed. Instead he’s just a boring, annoying twit. Now I’ll make the statement that will shock those reading this thread…Kornheiser annoys me so much, that I don’t even notice how bad Joe is. Y’all seem to be saying that it’s worse than the Sunday Night games with Maguire…that can’t be true, can it? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723/40 "2006-10-25T17:03:20Z")
Hey **Ellis** , when a Giants game is on ESPN, isn’t it also being shown on WOR-9? When I lived in the NYG viewing area, I watched a couple of Sunday Night games on WOR just so I could have Papa doing the play-by-play. (quick hijack – a co-worker buddy of mine is married to Papa’s sister. Apparently he’s a helluva good guy, and obviously one of the best people on the planet to yack about football with.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/espn-killing-monday-night-football/377723.md?page=3)