News: ESPN plotting dream 'Monday Night Football' booth: Al Michaels and Peyton Manning

CouchCoach

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Yep and there’s another factor even with the age group above that is everyone is simply too busy during the week with both parents working , kids , etc to sit down on weeknights for a 3 hour broadcast. Weekends is really only time for it. Shows during the week are being DVR and watch when they have time.

Now that I’m retired I avoid doing anything in public if possible on Sat or Sun. Even golf. It’s when everyone is out now. We try to travel Sun or Mon- Thur or Fri to avoid the crowds plus is cheaper.

If I have to go to HEB on the weekend it’s before 10:00 or it’s a madhouse.
I was at a party my older son was having and all of his buds are in the mid to late 40's and we got into the football discussion and not 1 of those 8 guys watches the games in real time. They time shift it to 30-40 minutes into the game and use the >> button or watch it using that button later that night. They don't do that with the college games because there are too many.
 

exciter

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Sheesh, cant think of too many things less appealing than listening to Peyton Manning for 3 hours. Guy has the charisma of a rotten stump!
 

CouchCoach

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Sheesh, cant think of too many things less appealing than listening to Peyton Manning for 3 hours. Guy has the charisma of a rotten stump!
ESPN might have to put sponsor logos on his forehead to recover some of the salary.
 

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KJJ

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I remember "Whoa Nellie" doing that very well. What a great play-by-play voice. That's what I do like about Michaels' voice, it cuts through the ambient noise. Nantz and Romo get buried in it.


Frank Gifford was ABC's initial target to be the play by play announcer but he couldn’t get out of his CBS contract until after the 1970 season. In 1971 Gifford landed the job. Keith Jackson wasn’t happy he had been taken off the Monday Night package. He found out he was taken off from someone other than Roone Arledge. That led to some contention between Jackson and the brass at ABC.
 

gjkoeppen

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I mean that varies year-to-year.

The bigger issue is that Thursday night has taken away the appeal of Monday night.

The biggest reasons for that is first anyone with a TV can watch Thursday Night Football, Monday Night Football on ESPN you need cable, dish or some streaming service. Now many people have those but everyone has the ability to watch their local FOX channel. Second as soon as Monday Night Football left ABC and went to ESPN (owned by ABC) they lost their title as the premier prime time program. When that happened the number of homes that had cable or dish was much lower than it is today so the number of viewers went down. With having the lowest viewership of the networks airing NFL games the league didn't schedule many of the big matches each week on ESPN. They saved those for the networks that had the viewers. Lastly who ESPN had in the booth just didn't draw many fans.
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CouchCoach

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Frank Gifford was ABC's initial target to be the play by play announcer but he couldn’t get out of his CBS contract until after the 1970 season. In 1971 Gifford landed the job. Keith Jackson wasn’t happy he had been taken off the Monday Night package. He found out he was taken off from someone other than Roone Arledge. That led to some contention between Jackson and the brass at ABC.
Jackson was the official voice of college football, an institution himself, and unassociated with the NFL. Really didn't make sense to have him on MNF.

Gifford working with Dandy and Howard had to be one of the best gigs on TV. I got to know a former producer on MNF when they were there and he said they always looked forward to the broadcast because they didn't know what kind of shape Cosell would be in. The story about him puking on Don's new ostrich skin boots is true. They said he could be bombed but when they went live, he was all pro. He said Howard always had a soft spot in his heart for Dandy because he thought Don got a raw deal from the Dallas fans and it was him giving Don a shot at a little payback that night they were calling for Don, losing to the Cards 0-38. His "No Way" resonated a lot further than just that booth because he never really recovered from the wounds of how the home boy was treated by the home crowd. The first glimpse of the most football ignorant home crowd in the NFL.
 

DandyDon52

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18% of American homes are not connected to cable or satellite and even more have no internet.

ESPN is locked into the rates they can charge versus what the Nets can charge and they're expenses are almost as high. They're betting name announcers can get better games and more viewers and I think they're wrong.

MNF was a great idea, once upon a time, but that time has passed. When it was at it's peak, there were 3 games on Sunday and maybe 6 or 7 college games on Saturday, that wasn't enough for me to get my fix. MNF wasn't a football game, it was an event. The first years my wife and I picked a team and built the menu around the indigenous food of that area. Meredith and Cosell were bigger than the actual games and Tuesday morning water cooler talk usually included something that had taken place between them.

Now, there's TNF as well as college games and then comes Saturday. The football from 8a-12m is unmatched and if you get the sports package from DirecTV, you get the ACC, Big 10, Pac 12 and SEC networks and it's my choice what 3 games to watch at the same time all day long, I am not fed the games like the NFL does or forced to pay some ridiculous price for the Ticket. Tell ya, I thought I needed the Ticket until I went without it, I don't miss it at all.
Meredith and Cosell were great and frank gifford was good too. I think that is where I first heard
"dandy don" I think Cosell called him that .
It was an event, and being a night game made it unique.
Their commentary was often what kept me watching if it was a boring game.
I dont have or want cable tv, and many people are the same, they just dont want it , or dont like the price , or it is not available.
I dont like cable because you have to pay for all the channels just to get the few you might want to watch. If they had a different setup I might be interested.
I would watch some of the Mnf games if it were on a network tv channel, but I am not going to pay
what the local cable monopoly wants for the basic pkg.There should be at least 2 cable companies
in each town or area, instead of the whole monopoly concept.
 

gjkoeppen

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My favorite Dandy Don moment on MNF was a bills game and the stadium was pretty empty and when the camera panned on a bills fan who looked like he just woke up from a nap and saw the camera on him and he gave it the finger and Dandy Don said well there's one fan who thinks his team is number one. That and when he would break into his turn out the lights the party is over.
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cowboyec

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just keep Al and Chris together and let them call MNF...they're a good announce team.
 

Aven8

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Wow! Al is 75?!? Looks fantastic.

And Manning would be great. Funny and would be able to call out almost every single play just like Romo
 
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