ESPN Fumbles the Ball

I have to admit with all of my other TV commitments on Mondays, I haven’t seen any Monday night football games this year.

But watching last night just confirmed for me that NBC is the best place to watch an NFL game.

First, there was the pregame. How much can you really talk about one game? And then, there were three different openings. Did we really need to hear that guy mock the name Houshmanzadeh? And what is up with that new version of Hank’s opening? Are we supposed to be impressed with all those people on the stage?

Then, there’s the coverage itself. I’ve never been a fan of Joe Theismann, but he’s a lot less annoying than Tony Kornheiser, whose main jobs are apparently to state the obvious and ask stupid questions.

Not that the commentary really mattered last night since everyone was apparently under the impression that Peyton Manning was the only one on the field at all times.

It didn’t get any better at halftime as Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson scared Bengals fans with the news that Carson Palmer looked hurt coming off the field. But were the announcers or sideline reporters listening? Apparently not because Suzy Kolber gave us neither a report on Carson or injured lineman Willie Anderson. What did she report? That the Bengals needed to execute on defense. Thanks for the news flash, Suzy.

Maybe NBC didn’t steal the best aspects of “Monday Night Football” after all. It looks like ESPN just fumbled them away…