Take on the MNF booth


One of the biggest mistakes that the NFL's broadcast partners constantly make is assuming the audience cares who is doing the game. Both Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were lured away from Fox to do Monday Night Football for ESPN and given extremely lucrative contracts. I'm not holding this against Buck or Aikman as they should get every Penny they can but I do think that there are very few broadcasters who can transcend their program…that entire list starts and stops with Howard Cosell .

I cannot tell you the last time I tuned into a game because Joe Buck was doing it. There is a connection that broadcasters have with a local audience, baseball specifically but a national NFL game has appeal based on the matchup or what people have on the line, not Tony Romo or Brent Musburger. The Manning cast is different because that is not about the game and truth be told it only fractures the audience from the traditional broadcast which with Buck and Aikman on board at their salaries is an even odder concept