Witten And MNF

No doubt Witten was awful on Monday Night Football.

But I thought I had read that ESPN was going to keep the same group for one more year.
 
He was signed to a another one year contract with ESPN....
 
GenoT said:
Anybody else think that just maybe, sometime shortly before he announced his return to playing, the folks at ESPN sat Jason Witten down and told him the brutal truth about his future with MNF?
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I liked him.
He was like a backwoods Yogi Berra.
 
GenoT said:
Anybody else think that just maybe, sometime shortly before he announced his return to playing, the folks at ESPN sat Jason Witten down and told him the brutal truth about his future with MNF?
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:muttley:
Um, yeah!
 
GMO415 said:
I heard the rumor he was about to be fired, but why resign him?
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Hard to say...are you sure he didn’t have a 2yr deal? Then again, Jason might’ve started thinking out loud about playing, and maybe the MNF folks helped him choose.

My take on JW in the booth was, he never looked relaxed. Possibly part of his problems on the mic we’re that he was wishing he was on the field.
 
JayFord said:
MNF needs 3 new commentators and possibly a 7:15 pm start time
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They don't need 3, 2 is enough, but they got blindsided a little with the scheduling once Fox agreed to do TNF, they got some good matchups, not that crap that CBS had. So, MNF slides back on the scheduling and that trio of Tessitore/Witten/McFarland was really lame but they had contracts with two of them before and needed to stick them somewhere. That idea of having McFarland block some of the fans' views with that sideline set up was really a bad idea.

I will be surprised if they even try to keep MNF when it comes up for renewal. They already have too many contracts and they cannot recover the rights fee for MNF with ad sales on Monday night. I am ambivalent about MNF, I think it's run it's course and I don't think there's anybody they can stick in that booth to help it.

I don't think they were going to fire him but I think they did have the talk about his future and I think while he may have committed to getting better, he wasn't built for that and the Jones knew he wasn't really happy.

While I agree Witten was unlistenable, what kind of training did he get? Think Aikman and Romo didn't benefit from having seasoned pros beside them? That was also a new director on MNF so Witten was almost on his own to make it and he just doesn't have the personality for it. But I did like the shots of Tessitore and Witten to kick it off, I kept expecting Witten to start grinding the organ and Tessitore to run around with a cup picking up coins.
 
I don't think broadcasting like Witten and I don't think Witten liked broadcasting. I think the arrival of Amari Cooper and he obvious discomfort in the booth made this decision late last season. He can probably play 2 more years at a decent level. Say what you want but it would've been nice to have him last year. I am fine with a guy realizing what he wants to really do. I look for him to go into coaching after a couple more seasons.
 
What's often overlooked is that Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland were just as bad as Witten was last year.

MNF needs an overhaul. It's bad enough it's no longer the "event" that it was when I was younger. I recall being at school on Mondays reminding myself there's a game on tonight. Now, it's like, "meh".
 
J12B said:
No doubt Witten was awful on Monday Night Football.

But I thought I had read that ESPN was going to keep the same group for one more year.
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Awful??? Not even close. He needed more experience but did a fine job. The issue is the idiots at MNF that thrust him into the roll. Not everyone is Romo in the booth and some guys need to learn over time.
 
CT Dal Fan said:
What's often overlooked is that Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland were just as bad as Witten was last year.

MNF needs an overhaul. It's bad enough it's no longer the "event" that it was when I was younger. I recall being at school on Mondays reminding myself there's a game on tonight. Now, it's like, "meh".
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McFarland is worse

Witten was bad but McFarland made me mute my tv
 
CT Dal Fan said:
What's often overlooked is that Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland were just as bad as Witten was last year.

MNF needs an overhaul. It's bad enough it's no longer the "event" that it was when I was younger. I recall being at school on Mondays reminding myself there's a game on tonight. Now, it's like, "meh".
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Agree. McFarland constantly running his mouth did not help Witten. When are these idiots going to realize you just need 2 guys calling a game.
 
Yeah, he obviously was about to be replaced in an embarrassing way making it clear he'd failed terribly.

Hence the totally transparent "This was completely my decision" line in his statement.

That's not a thing he'd have ever felt a need to say if it was completely his decision.
 
Whyjerry said:
Awful??? Not even close. He needed more experience but did a fine job. The issue is the idiots at MNF that thrust him into the roll. Not everyone is Romo in the booth and some guys need to learn over time.
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I agree. Witten's first couple games were very rough. But once he got into discussing plays in-depth he seemed to be in his element and was often more insightful than the average fan thinks.

The problem was just how fantastic Romo was right out of the gates as a broadcaster. Not everybody is that natural in front of an audience of millions and it was unfair to hold Witten to that standard.
 
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