Starting next season, Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser and Ron Jaworski will be the broadcast team for Monday Night Football. With only one cast change, this is not much of an overhaul. Still, replacing an analyst like Joe Theismann with an analyst like Jaworski is a significant change.
Jaworski doesn’t seem to take himself nearly as seriously as other football analysts routinely do (namely Theismann). He brings a passion to the game of football that is even evident in his broadcasts of Arena league games — essentially, he is the closest thing the NFL has to Dick Vitale. His in-depth analysis is much more informative than that of a Theismann or former ESPN NFL game analyst Paul Maguire.
In other words, he seems perfect for the role.
Jaworski was the best analyst not working on live games last season, and ESPN’s coverage can only benefit from having him. That being said, a booth with three light-hearted commentators might not bring the necessary gravitas to the games.
The broadcasts may be fun to listen to, especially considering that Kornheiser should loosen up around someone he is more comfortable with, but will they convey that sense of ‘this is something big’ that a broadcast team of Michaels-Madden, Nantz-Simms or Buck-Aikman is able to?
That depends. Some successful broadcast teams have balanced humor with good analysis. The TNT NBA broadcast team of Marv Albert, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Fratello back in 2003 was especially adept at this. During slow moments of the game, Albert, Van Gundy and Fratello would mock-spar with each other (including playing up a fictional feud between Fratello and Van Gundy), but when it came down to business, it was all analysis. If Tirico, Kornheiser and Jaworski are able to yuk it up in the first half and get down to business by the fourth quarter, there should be no problem.
And considering the fact that ESPN’s ratings will be spectacular no matter who is broadcasting the games, this is essentially a risk-free move. The only loser here is Joe Theismann, which should please most of the NFL viewing public.
