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Monday Night Football on ESPN

Elster88 Aug 13 2006 11:42 AM

What do you think of Tony Kornheiser and his ascension to the booth? [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/sports/football/13kornheiser.html?ref=sports]NY Times article[/url] ]And he hates flying, which is essential to the job, unless you are John Madden, who has not flown since Jimmy Carter’s presidency. ESPN got Kornheiser a bus, outfitted with a living room, a treadmill, six televisions and a bed, for short and medium hauls. But he will have to garage the Kornheiser Kruiser if he wants to show up on time for games in Seattle, Denver and Arizona.

MFS62 Aug 13 2006 11:54 AM

They're still trying for irreverence (see Milller, Dennis) but they have combined it with someone who has a career in sports journalism. He might be ok. B'sides, I appreciate anyone who went to SUNY Binghamton (one of my daughters graduated from there) and came out knowing anything about sports. Later

Yancy Street Gang Aug 13 2006 11:56 AM

I remember reading his column somewhere on at least a semi-regular basis, and the thing I remember most is how often he found a way to mention his lust for Nicole Kidman. Many sportswriters may feel the same way, but it doesn't often make its way into their writings.

MFS62 Aug 13 2006 12:06 PM

That's funny. Most sportswriters don't hide their lust for Derek. At least Tony is a manly man. LAter

Edgy DC Aug 13 2006 12:36 PM

I think Tony Kornheiser is an unfunny boob, who has long since stopped being a sportswriter and is now a full-time wisecracker. I don't know why papers --- or readers --- indulge these bad comics. The new play-by-play guy grew up with the Mets and Jets.

Frayed Knot Aug 13 2006 12:39 PM

I generally like Kornheiser. On the other hand I've never been the type to get all worked up over MNF no matter who was in the booth, especially since it's now going to be 'mnf' compared to it's heyday when it was **MNF**!!!! Their commericals can make it seem like this is the successor to the cultural phenomenom that was the original, but this is now the after-thought of the week game rather than the crowning jewel. They'll get mostly the leftover teams (think the Sunday night game for the last number of years) in the time slot I've been referring to as Tuesday Morning Football' for years now. So unless one of the locals is involved ...

KC Aug 13 2006 01:07 PM

I don't think Tony's funny, but I find that ESPN show entertaining at times. He's a goofball, and a neurotic goofball - and getting a Kruiser is cool, I hate flying too and wouldn't if I had the time and means to have someone chauffer me around in a rolling living room with six tvs. Monday Night Football just isn't the event that ABC/ESPN would like every- one to think it is - it's often boring as all hell - and if I manage to stay up to half-time with it on it's often with the sound down and music playing. Joe Theisman is just an asshole, btw. One of monolithic proportions.

Elster88 Aug 13 2006 01:31 PM

I'm more into MNF these days because as a group the guys who I watch with bring beer and pizza over and we gamble on the game well beyond our means. Makes the game more fun. Or at least more nerve-wracking. A widescreen TV with HD doesn't hurt. I will miss Al.

KC Aug 13 2006 01:36 PM

Well jeez, even watching the Ottowa Senators is more fun with friends, beer, pizza, and gambling. I dunno, Monday night is and always has been one of my slower nights and I find myself tired waiting for 9:00 to roll around and the pro- duction often makes me even sleepier.

Elster88 Aug 13 2006 09:12 PM

I would take a shitload of beer for hockey to be entertaining. But I see your point.

Willets Point Sep 11 2006 03:40 PM

C'mon football fans tonight's the night. Get excited. Biggest event of the week!!! Yea, I didn't think so.

HahnSolo Sep 11 2006 03:50 PM

Why won't ESPN foot the bill to send the bus cross-country? Fitting the bus with a living room, bedroom and gym doesn't seem to make much sense for a 3-hour drive to the Meadowlands. Incidentally, I had the chance to work with Tony at the 2000 New York is Book Country. He wrote a piece for the SportsCentury book, and I was working for the publisher at the time. He and Dick Schaap both did separate signings at our booth. Schaap was truly a nice man. Spent most of his time gushing about the forthcoming opening of theater season. But Kornheiser was not nearly as much of a dick as I thought he'd be. He's very insecure and nervous, but engaged in a nice sports discussion with me.

cooby Sep 11 2006 03:59 PM

Who's playing tonight? Anybody good?

Edgy DC Sep 11 2006 04:04 PM

Two encounters with him as a book seller. Creeepy both times. I had a colleague who was guilty merely of not recognizing him on sight (or on name for that matter). She was a $6.75/hour employee of Egyptian birth and complexion, with a light accent, and he took the opportunity to rip her in the Washington Post and accused the store of hiring non-English speakers. Because she didn't know who he was. If you've read his unfunny columns, you'd see he has little grounds to call anybody a non-English speaker.

Willets Point Sep 11 2006 10:33 PM

Should've watched this instead of the Mets.

SteveJRogers Sep 12 2006 08:04 AM

Edgy DC wrote: Two encounters with him as a book seller. Creeepy both times. I had a colleague who was guilty merely of not recognizing him on sight (or on name for that matter). She was a $6.75/hour employee of Egyptian birth and complexion, with a light accent, and he took the opportunity to rip her in the Washington Post and accused the store of hiring non-English speakers. Because she didn't know who he was. If you've read his unfunny columns, you'd see he has little grounds to call anybody a non-English speaker. Wow! Talk about an ego run amuck! Some celebs actually don't mind NOT being recongized!

cooby Sep 12 2006 08:14 AM

I watched a little last night. Was he the one with the little skit about Tom Cruise?

ABG Sep 12 2006 04:20 PM

Edgy DC wrote: Two encounters with him as a book seller. Creeepy both times. I had a colleague who was guilty merely of not recognizing him on sight (or on name for that matter). She was a $6.75/hour employee of Egyptian birth and complexion, with a light accent, and he took the opportunity to rip her in the Washington Post and accused the store of hiring non-English speakers. Because she didn't know who he was. If you've read his unfunny columns, you'd see he has little grounds to call anybody a non-English speaker. I'm a huge Kornheiser fan. I've never met him in person, but everyone I've known who has has only said good things. His local sports radio show here in DC was by far the best I've ever heard. That said, he hasn't found his place on MNF yet. I really wonder if the game wasn't being played in DC if he'd have had anything to say.

Edgy DC Sep 12 2006 04:53 PM

But he's simply not funny. What's more, he's as responsible as anybody for turning sports columns into wannabe late-nite monologues. "Here's what the AP wire says about what Deion Sanders is up to... and here's my snickery reponse." It's lazy, stupid, smug, snotty, and useless, and the kind of humor that builds the empty consesus of the sarcastic. "You can make a joke about A-Rod being a bum... it must be true!" It's an insult to sports journalists doing real work gathering and disseminating real information to have the ones too lazy to do any of that use their work as riffing points. His style, in which an itlalicized second voice talks back to him ("But Tony, you're not saying that the Bullets should start over and...") is cheap, juvenile, deceptive, straw-man work that, again, can be assembled by anybody without much effort. The Monday Night booth is welcome to him.

ABG Sep 12 2006 05:16 PM

="Edgy DC"]But he's simply not funny. What's more, he's as responsible as anybody for turning sports columns into wannabe late-nite monologues. "Here's what the AP wire says about what Deion Sanders is up to... and here's my snickery reponse." It's lazy, stupid, smug, snotty, and useless, and the kind of humor that builds the empty consesus of the sarcastic. "You can make a joke about A-Rod being a bum... it must be true!" It's an insult to sports journalists doing real work gathering and disseminating real information to have the ones too lazy to do any of that use their work as riffing points. His style, in which an itlalicized second voice talks back to him ("But Tony, you're not saying that the Bullets should start over and...") is cheap, juvenile, deceptive, straw-man work that, again, can be assembled by anybody without much effort. The Monday Night booth is welcome to him. Well then. Agree to disagree. It appears as if he's wronged you in some way, but I find him funny, insightful and a pleasure to read/listen to.

Edgy DC Sep 12 2006 05:36 PM

I just argued that he's a humorist that's not funny. Wronging my co-worker, not me, is another issue entirely that I wasn't speaking to. Where is the insight? Here's his last column from the sports section. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001066.html No insight there. No sports, either. Just spreading his brand like a cut-rate Howard Stern.

ABG Sep 12 2006 06:27 PM

Edgy DC wrote: I just argued that he's a humorist that's not funny. Wronging my co-worker, not me, is another issue entirely that I wasn't speaking to. Where is the insight? Here's his last column from the sports section. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001066.html No insight there. No sports, either. Just spreading his brand like a cut-rate Howard Stern. The Post has plenty of beat reporters. The post has plenty of traditional sports columnists. Kornheiser is a personality, and people enjoy seeing various things from his perspective. I don't find that at all objectionable.

metirish Sep 14 2006 11:26 AM

[url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1534725,00.html?cnn=yes]U2 to play on MNF[/URL]

Edgy DC Sep 14 2006 12:04 PM

More importantly, U2 is working with Rick Rubin.

cooby Sep 19 2006 08:29 AM

Could last night have been any duller? I stopped watching at halftime and went in on the couch and read. Checked the score every so often, but it doesn't look like I missed much from either side. Other NFL stuff: Jevon Kearse: Dang shame. The poor guy was trying to hide it, but he was in pain Sunday. Bengals' Pollack out with broken neck, ouch! T.O.: Ho-hum.

Willets Point Sep 19 2006 08:56 AM

I saw the first half too. I was actually intrigued enought to root for a scoreless tie, but not enough to actually watch the rest of the game.