Monday Night Football: Has Jason Witten ruined a US television institution?
The former Cowboy has been a disaster since he joined the most storied broadcast in American sports, but he’s not the show’s only problem
The NFL has a multitude of problems: players committing off-the-field violence, the Oakland Raiders in general and, most worrying of all, the growing realization that the game is inherently dangerous to its participants’ long-term health. With all this happening, one would think the state of the league’s flagship broadcast wouldn’t be a huge story. That, however, would underestimate just how unwatchable Monday Night Football has become this season, particularly due to former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten’s brutal start as the show’s lead analyst.
It was inevitable that there would be some growing pains over at MNF, as the show replaced the entire booth during the offseason. Witten’s predecessor, Jon Gruden, left to become Oakland’s head coach, a move that has been bad for both the broadcast and the team. Meanwhile, play-by-play man Sean McDonough returned to his old gig as a college football announcer. In their stead came Witten and Joe Tessitore. Tessitore, a veteran of boxing and college football coverage, has had some struggles making the adjustment to his new gig. Most notably, he’s been guilty of over-talking.
The main target is firmly on Witten’s back though. ESPN appointed Witten as the new color analyst almost immediately after he retired from the NFL. It’s not unusual for networks to hire athletes straight after their career: they’re immediately recognizable to the public and will have faced many of the players they commentate on. What they lack in broadcast experience, they can make up for with the kind of insight that those who haven’t played in the NFL will never have. Witten’s old teammate Tony Romo, for instance, seamlessly made the leap from the field to the studio. ESPN were hoping that would strike once again with Witten.
Unfortunately, instead of easing into a challenging new career by first learning the ropes in a less high-profile gig, he was thrust on to the biggest stage possible. The result has been an utter disaster. After an error-riddled debut, Witten has become a running gag rather than a competent broadcaster.
The reviews have been brutal. SB Nation called Witten “a complete mess.” The Onion mocked him with a video that asked, “will Monday Night Football cut Witten after the analyst went 0 for 65?” Twitter hangs on his every word, waiting for him to unleash another malapropism like “kicking themselves in the foot” or “pulled a rabbit out of his head.” Let’s not even talk about his attempt at political commentary.
Witten isn’t the only regrettable MNF commentator in the show’s long history. In 2000, the show hired Saturday Night Live veteran Dennis Miller to provide color, which ended up being a worse fit than Rob Gronkowski doing a one-man show about the Iran-Contra Affair. Miller lasted a single season. In 2006, when the show moved from ABC to ESPN, Pardon the Interruption wisecracker Tony Kornheiser acted as a color analyst. He lasted two years before ESPN cut the cross-promotional experiment short, to the relief of everybody (including Kornheiser, whose crippling fear of flying affected his enjoyment of the gig).
In those cases, however, there was a single issue wrong with the show. This time around, there’s a general sense that nothing is working. When Witten isn’t embarrassing himself, the broadcast commentary often becomes boring. There’s a lack of chemistry between the team, something that probably reflects the fact that the show’s primary roles are filled by people who are working together for the first time.
The producers aren’t helping. For instance, when former defensive tackle Booger McFarland joined MNF as a sideline analyst, they decided to have him report from a chair on an oversized crane. Not only is this an awkward set-up, and certainly can’t help the trio in developing any sort of on-air chemistry, the (sigh) Booger Mobile also blocks the field from fans in the stands.
The problem isn’t just Witten then, but he’s clearly the weakest link. For those hoping that Witten’s return to the NFL will solve the problem, well, they may have to wait. Apparently, the Cowboys reached out to Witten for a possible return and he turned them down. Deadspin’s headline was priceless: “Report: Jason Garrett Attempted to Improve Monday Night Football.”
It’s not impossible that Witten could improve, particularly since he can’t get much worse. There has at least been one positive highlight to his rookie season as a broadcaster so far. He earned praise last week for his comments on Washington’s signing of Reuben Foster after the player had been arrested for domestic violence. Witten said Washington “used horrendous judgment in claiming this guy … young players just have to understand that there is no tolerance for putting your hands on a woman. Period.”
While the remarks opened Witten up to justified criticism about his rather different comments when the Cowboys signed another player accused of domestic violence, Greg Hardy, it showed that he is willing to take a stand on an important issue.
None of this would be a huge deal if it weren’t for the fact that this is Monday Night Football, which was one of the longest-running shows in US primetime history before it moved from ABC to ESPN. While it no longer occupies the same primacy in pop culture thanks to developments like 24 hour sports programming, Sunday Night Football and the Red Zone Channel, it remains an American institution. Right now, Monday Night Football may well contain US sports’ worst broadcast team and that’s a shame for everyone.
