He’s had his leg snapped like a twig by L.T. He inflicted massive amounts of psychic torture on Cathy Lee Crosby. So it will take more than a football broadcasting neophyte like Tony Kornheiser to scare ESPN’s Joe Theismann. The Hartford Courant’s John Howell reviews preperations for the new-look “Monday Night Football”.
“Look, I’m not brought in here to be Luca Brasi,” Kornheiser said. “Everyone who knows me says the same thing, `Just be yourself.’ And I don’t know what that means. … The toughest thing for me when people say `be yourself’ is I am sarcastic. I am a wiseguy. And I don’t know how good that works in 3 to 5 seconds.”
Like John Madden, Kornheiser avoids planes. But he can’t avoid bumping analyst elbows with Joe Theismann, who will join Kornheiser and Mike Tirico in the “MNF” booth while Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya roam the sidelines.
“I don’t know what Tony is going to say and I don’t think Tony does either,” said Theismann (above), who was ESPN’s safety valve after Madden jumped to NBC. “Our interaction and relationship will develop and people will get a chance to grow with us. … If Tony – quote, unquote – `comes after me,’ great. I don’t believe in being a wilting flower.”
The Tennessean’s Jim White seems to contradict LenDale White’s denial of spitting in the face of teammate Donnie Nickey at Titans practice yesterday. There’s no truth to the rumor Bill Romanowski will be brought in to mediate future intra–squad disputes.
Tony Kornheiser and Joe Theismann bickering over a blown call in a preseason MNF game will still be better than Madden’s sound effects and Captain Obvious (Oblivious) observations.
It’s amazing the bad announcing teams the network pushes on us (madden, theisman/kornheiser, joe morgan, mccarver, bill walton). I’m listening now to Dick Enberg who may have had his day in the sun with Merlin Olson but at this point needs to go wherever the hell CBS has Pat Summerall hidden.
Despite his questionable (and very old) comments about Black Power, it’s a shame Brent Woody Musburger is the only decent veteran national ESPN/ABC multi-sport TV broadcaster left.
Why do they think we want to hear Suzy Kolber reading scripts from the sidelines? She absolutely ruins the game. The only women I care to see on a football field are cheerleaders and I can hardly stand them!