Monday Night Kornheiser

Yeah, I'm sure all of you have heard by now that Washington Post Columnist and Pardon The Interuption co-host Tony Kornheiser will be the third man in the booth for Monday Night Football Games on ESPN in 2006, along with Mike Trico and Joe Theisman.

I am very surprised that there isn't a general concensus one way or the other on how Kornheiser will do in the booth. It seems to be split pretty much 50-50, either people hate Kornheiser and his antics, or them love him and them, there is no middle ground on this. I really didn't know that many people didn't like Mr. Tony. Being one of only 4 people in the country (not related to Tony) who watched the show based on his columns and books, "Listen Up!", so I obviously am a fan. I wasn't a big fan of the show, it was pretty terrible, but I am a fan of his.

Few people can put up with his baldness, orangeness, and shouting, but hey, that's Kornheiser. While listening to ESPNRadio after this news came out, I was quite surprised to hear the disdain that some people do have for Mr. Tony. For whatever reason, they think he is just another one of the talking heads on television and that he isn't going to be any better than Dennis Miller was. Listen, Kornheiser isn't Dennis Miller, and he isn't supposed to be. Miller was brought in because he was a comedian and was supposed to be the "everyman" in the booth. His shtick was, and still is, going on garrulous diatribes which may or may not have had anything to do with the game. He didn't work because he tried to do his act while announcing a football game. Well, that and that Dan Fouts openly hated him.

Kornheiser is going to be different, he isn't a comedian in any sense of the word. He is a columnist who will bring a different set of eyes to each game. He doesn't analyze plays to tell us why a cover 2 would work best in a given situation, he will tell us why a player is doing stupid things on the field. It may work, and it may not.

Personally, I think he is going to do very well in the booth, chiming in every once in a while with his orange-tinted view of the world. ESPN is bringing him on board for one thing, he is a known name and he has a good possibility of bringing in more viewers. He may bring in more than were watching Monday Night Football on ABC and he might not, but one thing he won't do is bring in less. As one caller told Dan Patrick on the Dan Patrick Show, "I think Tony Kornheiser is going to do a horrible job on Monday Night Football. In fact I am going to tune in just to watch how bad he is." Guess what caller, hook, line, and sinker. It doesn't matter if people watching love him or hate him, it only matters that they are watching.

Good luck Tony, I hope it goes very well. One of my favorite aspects of the move is that PTI is going to broadcast from the site of the Monday night game every week, so we'll have Kornheiser and Wilbon previewing the game from the site. It's going to be a fun experiment for ESPN, and I really hope it works out, because I am one of the people who loves Tony Kornheiser.



( Just thought you should read this great article by espn.com's Andy Katz on Adam Morrison, the star forward for the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who has diabetes. This was forwarded to me by a good friend of Our Turn Next, the Diabetic Bear, one Brady Gordon. Bear, thanks for the article and don't worry, you're still my favorite diabetic, although Santo is a close second.)

Also wanted to let you know that I plan on writing about:
the NFL moving games to Thursday and Saturday nights (angry)
Grizzly Man (if you want to see crazy, as in actually crazy. I really wanted to write about this after I watched it on
Discovery Channel, but never got around to it, and now Simmons touched on it, so it looks like I'm copying him, but
really, I'm not trying to)
Olympics (oh wait, I don't care)
Favre (make a decision, or shut up)


-Until next time...