The new “B” team on Monday Night Football is two-thirds of last year’s “A” team.
Steve Levy and Louis Riddick will return to Monday Night Football as the secondary broadcast team calling games in weeks when the series features two games, the New York Post reported Wednesday. The news is no surprise; ESPN’s Stephanie Druley hinted as much during a conference call Monday in which she thanked Levy and Riddick for their work last season before noting that ESPN would have an announcement regarding its secondary team in the coming weeks.
Per the Post, Levy and Riddick will be joined by Dan Orlovsky — filling the vacancy left by Brian Griese, who departed ESPN for a job with the 49ers. Orlovsky was in the mix for the MNF job when Levy, Riddick and Griese were named the lead team two years ago.
Levy, Riddick and Orlovsky will replace Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit as the secondary team. Fowler and Herbstreit — ESPN’s lead college football team — called one game each the past two seasons, but Herbstreit’s new role as Amazon’s lead NFL analyst ended that arrangement. It is worth noting that Levy and Riddick, along with Griese, served as the secondary team in the 2019 season.
Levy will be the first lead Monday Night Football play-by-play voice to return to the series in a reduced capacity. His predecessors Joe Tessitore and Sean McDonough returned to their previous positions on college football after their MNF tenure ended; Mike Tirico and Al Michaels left the series for NBC; for Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell, MNF was their final regular role.
There are three multi-game weeks for Monday Night Football this season. In Week 2, ESPN carries Titans-Bills and ABC Vikings-Eagles in a split doubleheader. In Week 8, ESPN+ has Broncos-Jaguars from London on a Sunday morning and ESPN Bengals-Browns on the usual Monday night. Finally, ESPN and ABC will simulcast a Week 18 doubleheader on January 7.
Next season, when the new NFL media rights deal goes fully into effect, ESPN will have five multi-game weeks per season.
[News from NYP 5.18]
