Five Hires To Make ESPN’s Monday Night Football Great Again

ESPN pays the NFL $1.9 billion per year for 17 regular season and one playoff game per year under the Monday Night Football brand. That does come with the highlights necessary to fund countless hours of other programming, but that’s a ton of money to shell out per game.

So why has ESPN consistently put out an inferior product when it’s come to its broadcast talent?

After Saturday’s report from The Athletic that the duo of Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland won’t return for the 2020 season, whenever that’ll start, maybe ESPN can rectify its past wrongs.

Tessitore and McFarland, who were a poor fit with and without 2018 colleague Jason Witten, didn’t give MNF a big game vibe and weren’t better than what you’d find on a regional Sunday broadcast, perhaps the fourth or fifth-best crews on CBS
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or Fox
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. Richard Deitsch and Andrew Marchand of the New York Post predicted that candidates to replace Tessitore and McFarland already work at ESPN.

All four of the guys Marchand mentioned would be fine, I guess. Levy is a veteran play-by-play guy, Riddick is good at everything he’s done at ESPN and Orlovsky appears to be on the rise at the network. But MNF has lacked gravitas and a big game feel in the booth since Mike Tirico left for NBC and ESPN knows it. It’s why it reportedly pursued big names like Al Michaels, Peyton Manning, Tony Romo and Drew Brees.

Here are five other names that would help make Monday Night Football the widely respected brand it deserves to be.

Kurt Warner

The Hall of Fame quarterback already works Monday Night Football games, calling the action on Westwood One radio with Kevin Harlan. Hiring either would instantly give ESPN its best talent on the program is years. He’s also an analyst on NFL Network, so he could help ESPN as a talking head on analysis shows as well. The former St. Louis Rams great has been mentioned as someone ESPN has shown interest in, but is not an internal candidate as shown above. But if they’re serious about making a big upgrade in the booth, Warner should be the top candidate.

Randy Moss

The Hall of Fame wide receiver already appears as an ESPN analyst on its Sunday and Monday pregame shows, and has the chops and the name recognition that would make him more than worthy of a selection to the booth. There’s a reason ESPN poached him from Fox in 2016, and it’s because he’s a damn good analyst. And if ESPN could hire Witten and stick him in the booth for its biggest property with no game calling experience, it could definitely do the same with a safer bet like Moss. Hire a longtime play-by-play guy to guide him along and reap the benefits.

Nate Burleson

After a solid but unremarkable 11-year playing career, Burleson has fared much better as an analyst. First on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football and then on CBS’ NFL Today pregame show, Burleson has proven that he can combine strong x’s and o’s analysis with keeping things light and conversational on air along with being able to relate to players in today’s game. ESPN has “thought about” both Burleson and Warner, per Marchand, and either would be a much more inspired choice than any of their internal candidates.

Ian Eagle

Instead of trotting out college football play-by-play guys from within— one guy who would’ve been great at that would’ve been Adam Amin, who recently left ESPN for Fox— why not take a big swing at guys NFL fans know and love?

Eagle has called NFL games on CBS since it re-acquired rights in 1998 and has been an excellent and commanding presence ever since, now calling playoff games as its number two play-by-play announcer behind Jim Nantz. While Eagle is happy at CBS, ESPN could use him for its biggest college basketball and NBA games as well, giving the network an instant win on numerous fronts. The same could be said for other current NFL play-by-play guys like Harlan or Fox’s Kenny Albert, but Eagle should be the external candidate ESPN should pursue.

Mina Kimes

If ESPN is going to go outside the box like it’s done in the past with Witten or Tony Kornheiser, at least do it in a smart way. Hiring Kimes as a hybrid sideline reporter and analyst, would be genius. If you’ve listened to her talk football on her podcast or on various ESPN shows like Dan Le Batard’s, you already know she can bring it in insightful and light-hearted ways. If you’ve read any of her articles or listened to her on ESPN Daily, you know she can interview players on the field as well. ESPN should bring some youth and vibrancy to MNF, and Kimes would be the best person to fulfill that.

You’re welcome, ESPN.