Thursday was an absolutely wild day for NFL announcer rumors.
It started with a report that ESPN was looking to make a trade (a trade!) with NBC for Al Michaels so he could take over as the play-by-play guy for Monday Night Football.
And then later in the day there was a report that ESPN would be willing to pay Peyton Manning $18-$20 million a year (sorry, Tony Romo!) to be the analyst on MNF.
While I don’t really want the Michaels thing to happen – he’s great on Sunday Night Football and I’d selfishly like for that broadcast team to stay as-is – I’m all for Peyton become the guy on MNF, for a number of reasons.
First of all, if you’ve watched MNF the past few years you know that booth has been one of the worst things to happen to sports. Jason Witten (was there for one season) was awful and Booger McFarland has been brutal. Joe Tessitore is just as bad as a play-by-play guy.
Second of all, Peyton would be awesome at the job. We all know he’s a really smart football dude, which he showed off throughout his legendary playing career. But if you’ve watched any of his “Detail” episodes on ESPN+ you’ve seen that he’s incredible at breaking down plays.
Finally, is he worth $18-$20 million a year? Who cares! ESPN wouldn’t be spending any of our money! I’ll never get why anyone would question if an announcer is worth the money, as if any of us are going to be footing the bill. Pay Peyton everything you can, ESPN!
The only thing I would ask is that Peyton gets teamed up with at least a decent play-by-play guy, if that whole trade thing for Michaels doesn’t go through. Tessitore is nowhere close to being that guy.
MNF has been virtually unwatchable the past few seasons for two reasons – the booth has been dreadful and a lot of the matchups have been even worse.
Peyton would instantly make these games much more watchable. Plus, more people would have nice things to say about ESPN during the season; just look at how much good press CBS gets for the stuff Romo does on just about a weekly basis.
This would also be the easiest job of Peyton Manning’s life. $18-$20 million a year to call MNF games? He could do this job so well without even trying.
So yeah, if I’m ESPN (which I’m not) I empty my pockets and give everything I have to the Nationwide insurance guy.
Then I tell Tessitore and McFarland to beat it.
Thursday’s biggest winner: Steph Curry.
Curry finally made his return to the court Thursday night after missing the last 58 games due to a broken hand. It didn’t take him long to hit one of his classic 3-pointers from loooooooooong range against the Raptors. All NBA fans are better off with Steph Curry back doing Steph Curry things.
Quick hits: Best fit for Bridgewater?… Training with an Olympic swimmer… Votto’s perfect response… And more!
– Teddy Bridgewater deserves to be a starting QB in the NFL, but where would be the best fit? Steven Ruiz breaks it down.
– Michelle Martinelli had U.S. Olympic swimmer Caeleb Dressel take her through a typical day of training and yeah, his days are a lot more active than mine.
– Joey Votto had the best response to MLB potentially limiting in-game video.
– Stone Cold Steve Austin is returning to the WWE… on 3/16 Day. Because, of course.
– European golfer Eddie Pepperell got disqualified from another tournament for another really lame reason. Why are golfers still keeping score for each other in the year 2020?
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