Mount Airy, Md.: I love Ron Jaworski, but I'm going to miss Joe Theismann on "Monday Night Football." Think one of the other networks will pick him up? Or will ESPN use him in some other capacity?
Michael Wilbon: For those who don't know the news of the day -- and for obvious reasons I'm not going to comment on this extensively -- Joe Theismann has been replaced in the Monday Night Football booth by Ron Jaworski. And I'm terribly conflicted about this primarily for this reason: Joe Theisman was the first professional athlete I ever got to really know. I was 21 when I moved to D.C. and Theisman was the quarterback of the Washington Commanders. I was nobody, an intern, then a cub reporter and Joe was great to me. Never said, "Who's this punk?" He sat me down, talked to me, shared football philosophies, put up with my stupid 21-year-old questions. He was great and I love him for that to this day...So there are fewer people out there who are bigger Joe Theismann fans than I am and will be. He's a pro's pro, and whatever people think of him and how much they think he talks or whatever, Joe works as hard at analyzing football games as he did playing them. So, I am unabashed fan of Joe Theismann...Now, I've become close with Jaws over the last 10 years, specifically the last 5 as he's become a big part of our success on PTI. There's nobody, over these last five years, I've come to respect as much when it comes to analyzing football and human nature as much as Jaws. I enjoy listening to Jaws as much as anybody associated with football, and I've been lucky enough to pick his brain dozens of times every football season after he comes out of the vault and shares whatever he's learned with people who work in the sports-media industry...Talk about a completely unselfish, totally inclusive person...I'm happy for Jaws, but I feel for Joe at the same time...I didn't know about this until I landed at Dulles airport this morning, drove home, took the newspaper out of the bag on the driveway and looked at USA Today's photo on the front page of sports and the headline. I work with Tony, but I don't work with MNF, so it was a total surprise to me, and I presume for obvious reasons that a man with Joe Theismann's resume will be analyzing football, whether college or pro, for somebody, whether ESPN/ABC or whomever...I don't think Joe will be waiting by the phone.
