…to Fire Kornholio, otherwise known as Tony Kornheiser.
Bob Wolfley of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes about the ESPN Monday Night Football announcing crew this year.
You hope when the games are for real, the Monday night crew will see fit to talk mainly about the football down there on the field.
You give ESPN credit for its willingness to adjust, but it’s a shame you have to get permission from a focus group to go ahead and call a football game, a version of needing a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows.
It’s really a shame that ESPN didn’t just consult the Packers blogosphere. BTW- according to wikipedia Tony Kornheiser makes $1.8 million dollars to announce Monday Night Football.
Bobby at Green Bay Booze and Broads:
If you’re like me and want to donkey punch Tony Kornheiser in the back of the head, make sure you tune into Wayne and Larry for an intelligent radio broadcast with the TV on mute.
I hope Bobby doesn’t mind I’m using a huge chunk of quote - I have to share this classic:
So if you were able to get past the amazing insight provided by the Monday Night Countdown team (by the way, it’s friggin Thursday!!!) you’ve been treated to one of the worst human beings on the planet….Tony Kornheiser. Kornheiser (or Kornholer as Mike Florio likes to call him) is simply the most irritating, unfunny, s!@*bag who actually gets paid to make horrible horrible jokes on national TV. Tonight, he’s thrown out zingers like “this just in.. Brett Favre has been traded to the Knicks because the Jets don’t seem like they want him anymore,” and I swear he laughed at his own joke for a good ten seconds. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! And what’s even worse is when Jaws laughs with him! I’d rather listen to John Madden babble on about whatever the hell he babbles on about. Dare I say that I miss Joe Theismann? I’m pretty sure Kornholer sold his soul to the devil to be on TV, but he has to go through life looking life Gollum from Lord of the Rings with an even worse comb-over. Ehhh.. can the season get started already so I can listen to Wayne Larrivee and Lary McCarren?
I could not agree more. I do not understand- Just what demographic does Tony serve? People that annoy us so much we Yell at the TV? Old white guys who think New York City is still the center of the world?
Dig deeper and you will find the Packer blogosphere is not done.
Mark at The Fontenot:
Last year I really never watched a whole Monday Night Football game, because I taught a class on Monday nights until late. This means that last night’s game was really my first Game Length Kornheiser Experience.
Guess what? Now I see why people really don’t like him much! I get that the national audience is more interested in the Favre story, and the lovable qualities of Green Bay, etc., but couldn’t Tony have at least said something vaguely original about the subjects? Apparently not. He is a bearded hot air balloon, with sandbags filled with horsecrap. The other two weren’t much better. Only in the late third quarter did they start to remember that some of us might want to know a few things about the players actually on the field, actually playing football. I found myself almost wishing for Dennis Miller.
Guys. I could not have said it any better. I guess some people think I’m mean. I don’t have any actual personal feelings about the man. In the reality of the business of the world there are people who have set the standard for Commentary during a game. Not only does Kornheiser not possess a broad enough knowledge of Football, he is too concerned with national headlines and “seeming” big picture items, and not enough about the game of Football. That’s why people love Madden, it’s also why people like Aikman and some other former star players who have a passion for the game. Even though some of us may think Aikman is too skewed to the Cowboys or John Madden is an overblown windbag- those guys have as much passion for the game as any Die-Hard Packer fan.
Most NFL announcers understand that when it’s the fourth quarter of a pre-season game, it allows for discussion of the broader NFL (NOT EVER BASEBALL. NFL and National issues ONLY please- it’s an NFL game for goodness sake, have some respect) but during the regular season it’s time to Talk About the Game. They LOVE Football. Just like Ron Jaworski.
I guess it’s more a question of ESPN programming executives. Do they really understand the game of Football?
Clearly the original Monday Night Football crew knew how to keep it about Football. (they now have a nice corporate heavy glossy Sunday night product on NBC with some Standard-Bearer announcers) But to the people who run the program now, numbers might be more important than value. They actually may be brilliant. Am I writing a post about how great Al Michaels is right now?
Meanwhile, the Monday Night Football brand erodes before our very annoyed eyes. (and ears)
ritter7158 said in November 25th, 2008 at 1:25 am
