Gruden replaces Kornheiser on MNF

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by painekiller

IMO adding a guy like Warren Sapp would be much better TV.

I dunno much about Sapp, other than what little I saw of him on the NFL Network. I'm sure he knows the game, but is there a big "jerk-factor" one has to tolerate with Sapp ? I know it was so bad with Michael Irving I couldn't handle it, but when I had the patience to listen to him L realized he actually made some perceptive remarks. But his personality just drowned out whatever insight he offered, atleast for me.
I think another x-HC on NFL Network, Mooch the x-49er coach, would be better than Gruden, but I'm OK with Gruden. I'm really not very picky about who they have as long as he knows football and talks about football.
But back to Kornheiser. The only guy on MNF who ever worked for me who's shtick wasn't football was Cosell, but he was truly one of a kind.

[papabear]

I don't understand why they feel the need to have a three man booth. Unless you have the perfect combination it's probably not going to work. There is nothing wrong with a two man booth.

[HPF Bob]

The three-man booth was originally meant to convey that the event was so special that extra commentary was needed. It was also a way to find a role for Cosell who was ill-cast as either play-by-play or color commentary. ABC, perhaps unintentionally, came up with great chemistry between the Jewish East-Coast lawyer Cosell and the aw-shucks Texas jock Don Meredith. What started out as a simple clash of cultures became something of a pretend fued that kept the broadcast entertaining on nights when the game itself didn't hold the audience.

But once Meredith left (he was promised he could be a serious actor for NBC), MNF never again had the sort of dynamics in the booth that once made it a phenomenom. They definitely tried to be provocative (Joe Namath, OJ Simpson, Alex Karras, ....all the way up to Dennis Miller) but they could never put a twosome or a threesome in the booth that delivered what they had in the early 1970s. FWIW, I consider SNF to now be the heir to MNF because it is the prime time major-network game with the top matchups, not the cable broadcast that gets the second-tier matchups.

[mussop]

Gruden is a putz. I hate that Im going to have to listen to him. I bet he doesnt last beyond this year anyway.