ESPN takes over Monday Night

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 3/06/2006

After 36 years of Monday Night Football on ABC Network TV, the 2006 NFL season will bring about major change for many Americans. The NFL has turned the biggest game of each week over to ESPN, the “World Wide Sports Leader.”

 

Starting this summer, ESPN moves from Sunday night to Monday night. It’s hard to believe but true that most Americans don’t have cable or satellite in their homes. That means that, for the first time in NFL history, the biggest game in prime time won’t be on free TV.

 

ABC’s broadcast team of Al Michaels and John Madden are giving way to the team of Mike Tirico, Joe Thiesman and Tony Kornhouser. Thiesman formerly played quarterback with Washington; his last NFL game of his career was on Monday Night when his leg was broken in three places on the violent tackle by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants.

 

Thiesman (JT) talked with me about the NFL and the new challenge of replacing Madden on Monday Night.

 

JT: When we [ESPN] did the game in Mexico last season on Sunday Night between Arizona and San Francisco, I was able to spend a little time with your son before the game. Your son is one of my favorite people because of the type of person that he is and his work ethic. I’m standing there watching practice, and at the end he’s out catching extra balls. There’s no surprise to me why he’s where he is. Larry, to me, is such a breath of fresh air.

 

When you look at some of the people like Terrell Owens and some of these other guys that are very gifted athletes, and then you look at a young man like your son, you have a lot to be proud of as a father. You have a tremendous amount to be proud of because that son of yours has made you very, very proud. And he’s made us very proud. He’s a credit to himself and his family. I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.

 

LF: Joe, you were able to win a World Championship with Washington in Super Bowl XVII, and that speaks volumes in this business.

 

JT: The Championship means an awful lot. I was talking to some of the guys from Seattle. Once you lose a World Championship, you’re just one of 31 football teams; you just got there later than other people. And when you win it, you stand at the top of the mountain all by yourself.

 

It’s like coming to the Pro Bowl — I always get a kick. I love to go to the first practice when the World Championship players arrive. It’s almost like, “Here come the Herald Kings.” When they walk on the field, they’re different; they are talked to different; they are looked at different.

 

Everything about that World Championship makes a difference here [at the Pro Bowl] when you’re with the best in the league. Now you’re not only just with the best players in the NFL, but you’re the best of the best. And it is such a great honor. It’s not a responsibility — it’s a great crown to wear.

 

LF: Joe, you are now at the very top level in the NFL. There is no greater exposure than that, what you and ESPN have done with the Sunday Night package. Talk about the Monday Night assignment for ESPN.

 

JT: [For] all of us that have played this sport over the last 36 years, Monday Night has become the most special night with the National Football League. It’s the only night where your peers actually get a chance to watch. Obviously, the national audience is tremendous in scope.

 

What we are going to be able to do on ESPN is turn it into more than just a three-hour telecast starting at 8:30. By the way, it is going to start half a hour earlier, which I think a lot of people are going to appreciate. Like you and me, heck, one o’clock in the morning roles around [and] I was tired, I had to go to bed, I did not see the end of a lot of ball games. I think people will see a lot of football now.

 

Plus, ESPN will have our entire radio crew, our PTI [Pardon the Interruption] crew. All of our support will be a part of the Monday Night program. When we come to town, it will be like 17 Super Bowls. If we go to Cincinnati, it will be like Cincinnati is hosting a Super Bowl, because the ESPN coverage will be that large.

 

My career ended on a Monday Night, and so to be able to do Monday Night has brought it full circle for me. A lot of people don’t realize that the first Super Bowl that ABC did was Super Bowl XVIIII — you’re talking 21 years ago. I was a part of the broadcast booth with Frank Gifford and Don Merideth. I replaced O.J. Simpson in the booth for the Super Bowl.

 

So I have done a Super Bowl. I was a part of ABC’s telecast when they first got Super Bowls. And now I have a chance to continue on at ESPN and be able to work with Mike Tirico, who I have worked with before, and Tony Kornhouser, who has a television background and a writing background.

 

And I have no idea what it’s going to sound or look like. I’m like everybody else in America – I’m curious!   

 

 

Fitz Notes & Quotes

 

Mike Shanahan was the head coach of the AFC team in the recent Pro Bowl game in Hawaii. And, it looks like Terrell Owens, when he is released next week by Philadelphia after serving his suspension, could sign with Denver.

 

Last year, the Broncos were 13-3 and lost the AFC title to Pittsburgh. “We are very interested in T.O,” said Shanahan. “Now it boils down to Philadelphia and March 14, how they handle his payment in regard to his contract. If he is released, that changes things, because he becomes a free agent.”

 

Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney on the famous Rooney Rule being named after him said, “It was by accident, really. I’m flattered, really, because fairness is what it’s all about.”

 

Minneapolis Central grad Michael Johnson now works with the Seattle Seahawks; he’s a systems analyst. Steven A. Smith is now a regular on ESPN’s Sunday Sports Reporters. James Brown, the best studio host in the business for number-one-rated FOX, is leaving FOX to return to CBS as studio host of their NFL coverage and will now be a part of CBS’s coverage of this spring’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.