Kornheiser, Theismann, Tirico on new crew as MNF shifts to cable

February 8, 2006

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) -- Former quarterback Joe Theismann, Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico will be the broadcast crew for "Monday Night Football" next season as the long-running show shifts to ESPN from ABC.

The moves leave Al Michaels free to switch to NBC, which takes over Sunday night games next season from ESPN. John Madden, Michaels' broadcast partner for the last four seasons, agreed in June to a six-year contract with NBC.

At a news conference in July, Michaels said he would remain with "Monday Night Football" when it switched to ESPN. He was to be paired with Theismann, who had broadcast Sunday night games on ESPN with Mike Patrick and Paul Maguire.

Mike Breen will replace Michaels as the lead NBA play-by-play announcer on ABC/ESPN. He will be joined by former NBA coach Hubie Brown, hired in December 2004 as the analyst.

Theismann was an NFL quarterback for 12 seasons and had worked on ESPN's Sunday night games since 1988. In addition to working for the Post, Kornheiser has co-hosted "Pardon the Interruption" on ESPN since September 2001 with Michael Wilbon, another Post writer.

Tirico has been a "SportsCenter" host for ESPN and handled play-by-play of the last Orange Bowl. He has worked for ESPN and ABC since 1991.

Michele Tafoya returns for her third season as a "Monday Night Football" sideline reporter, and Suzy Kolber was added as a second sideline reporter.

Kornheiser would be interesting to watch. Tirico is a solid play by play man but God, couldn't they find any retired player other than Theisman?

Joe T sucks balls. He is absolutely the worst color guy since Tim Green.

Tim Green sets the bar for Awful, Joe T sets the bar for annoying pompous know it alls. He's a few thousand tacos and a video game away from John Madden.

Oh well, MNF with the sound down. Tirico should be good though.


It would have been nice to get someone new. Phil Simms has done well as of late. The same knowledge but nowhere near as self aggrandizing(sp).

theisman is fucking horrible. the other 2 should be ok. i like konheiser on pti but i could see him being annoying on mnf, i hope not though

This was an interesting announcement.

Mike Tirico is very annoying.

I think Tirico and Kornheiser will be great, but Joe T is terrible.

Goddammit... the last thing we need in the booth is ANOTHER Redskins homer.

tony is great- my favorite sports guy in the air. Tirico has always been solid. I hope Joe T snaps his twig again

Obviously Joe sucks, but I don't know much about the other two. One big reason Joe sucked so badly is that he would always argue with Paul Maguire. Hopefully the other two don't get into that again.

Tony K is freakin awesome. i loved his radio show and i love him on PTI, but i don't think he's ever worked a booth

I'm glad that this leaves Michaels and Madden together. I think they're pretty good as a team so Sunday Night Football should be pretty watchable. I think the move to ESPN kind of takes some of the lustre off of MNF to be honest. If it's not on network TV it loses a lot of the big event status that it had. It's great for ESPN, but I think not as good for the NFL.

Is Michaels going to NBC?

Thats pretty much what the story alluded to

i swear i remember reading months ago the NBC team was going to be madden and chris collingsworth. this might leave michaels out of the mix, or he could sign with NBC this week and do the olympics

Collinsworth is a color man, so that would be a play-by-play-less booth. Maybe CC will be with Madden, but they still need someone to call the action.

i like tirico, but i'm not sure about kornheiser...all i've really seen him on is PTI, and he can be annoying on there, but that may just be a part he plays on the show