MNF = Howard Cosell arrogance this fall

[CaliforniaCheez]

Read about the disaster ESPN is creating of Monday Night games.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080701099.html

Howard Cosell made fun of Frank Gifford sitting in his hotel room using index cards of players names and numbers memorizing them. He said it only confused Frank and people don't care about no names.

Chapter 6 of I Never Played the Game Howard Cosell stated "Working with ex-jocks, I had to pick my spots...and rescue the viewers from being bored to tears with an endless stream of nonsenical football jargon and insipid drivel about the 4-3 defense."

"If I had had only one jock to cope with I could've changed the nature of the telecasts, elevating them by providing more information beyond what was happing on the field, more entertaining journalism, and a more entertaining approach to the games. Why not? Who's kidding whom? Who the hell made Monday Night Football unlike any other sports program on the air? If you want the plain truth I did."

"I realized early on that it was up to me to interact with the millions of women and casual fans who were tuning in and get a reaction out of them...The game became less important than the act of watching it on television."

Tony Kornheiser is going to be deliberately ignorant of football and attempt to be entertaining. I think he holds the same contempt of football that Howard Cosell posessed.

I think he will be a disaster. I believe if the game is good, more people will watch. If it is a bad game, fewer people will watch. The guys in the booth cannot add audience but they can lose it.

With the Mickey Mouse company putting Kornheiser on their ESPN version of MNF, I will likely be doing what I did when Howard was on the air.
Turn the sound down on the television and turn on the radio.


PS. I got Howard's book at a used book sale for a quarter and none of that quarter went to Howard's estate.

[Creepy]

You either liked Cossell or hated him. I liked him on MNF, because him and Meredith had a great thing together. Meredith was entertaining but knew what he was talking about, Cossell couyld be boring at times but was also knowledgable of the game. Gifford was OK because he didn't do more than color, play, down distance, you know easy stuff.

By the time MNF moved it had become what it never should have been. Too busy looking for celebs on the filed or sidelines. Stupid interviews during game time that have nothing to do with the game i.e., the Eagle/Raider game on Monday. While leslie Visser or whatever was talikng to (hell can't even remember the idiots name) the QB was sacked, writhing on the ground, a fumble which was recovered by the Raiders. Even after the turnover the Raiders ran 1/2 plays before they went back to Madden & Michaels with no mention of the sack, QB or turnover.

This is why MNF went down hill. They try to make it entertaining and forget that the game is the entertainment. I now this was just a pre-season game, but you know this chatty banter crap will carry over into the season. Oh how I wish fopr the 60s and 70s when they announced games and talked of the game on the field and left the rest of the crap in the crapper.

[bbbffl66]

When Howard was on MNF, it was still a great honor to play on Mondays. I loved hearing him talk about the Pack, maybe because it was so infrequent. I have always liked Cornheiser, from the ESPN radio days and from PTI, and I hope he can be as entertaining in this new capacity.

[wist43]

Howard sure made the mundane more entertaining... Him and Don Meridith were a riot. Don was drunk half the time.

The good old days.

[mraynrand]

MNF lost popularity because there are so many choices now. It's that simple. I'm a footbal guy, I love to hear more about Xs and Os than I do about being entertained. But if MNF wanted to attract big ratings, they needed to be a Pop culture magnet. I've heard that the reason Dennis Miller got hired was that he was absolutely hilarious, but PG-13 or R rated in his demos, and he just ripped the guts out of players. Once he got on the air, he didn't want to make enemies with the players, and he had to ease off the language and content. Made him bland and irrelevant. Worse, Al Michaels kept trying to joke with him, and Al Michaels is about as funny as pancreatic cancer.

I know a lot of people didn't like Dennis Miller, but that's about the only thing ABC could have done to gain widespread popularity - either go comedy, or spin it for the chicks. Why do you think they love putting Favre on and show camera shots of his wife all night long?

Also, they probably could have increased viewership by 2-3 million if they got rid of Hank Williams, Jr. Everytime I hear that guy singing, I want to throw a shoe through my TV screen.