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ESPN’s Secondary Monday Night Football Crew is Solid
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Monday Night Football.
It’s a tradition unlike any other.
Last year people didn’t like the Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten, and Booger McFarland trio calling the games. Witten un-retired to play a 16th year of football, so this season the crew is going to be Tessitore, McFarland, and Lisa Salters on the sidelines. The Booger-mobile was also sent to the junkyard.
I personally have no real opinion on that trio of personalities, but I really like the secondary crew that will work the season-opening double-header on September 9th.
Play-by-play voice Steve Levy, analysts Brian Griese and Louis Riddick and reporter Laura Rutledge will call the Denver Broncos-Oakland Raiders game on ESPN as part of the opening-night doubleheader to kick off Monday Night Football’s 50th season on September 9 at 10:15 p.m. ET / 7:15 p.m. PT.
This AFC West matchup will follow Houston Texans-New Orleans Saints (7 p.m. ET), which will feature the debut of ESPN’s new MNF commentator team: Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland and Lisa Salters.
Levy is a veteran and knows what he’s doing. Griese I’ve always thought does a good job in the booth. He actually did the second MNF game last year with Beth Mowins, if you recall. Rutledge has experience as a sideline reporter dating back to 2014 and Riddick, a Quakertown native and former Eagles front office member, I think is one of the best football minds on the network. I’m really interested to see how he does calling Monday Night Football.
Honestly, gotta say, I think that secondary crew is better than the primary crew, but we’ll see how Booger does without Jason Witten in the picture.
🏈 @LRiddickESPN talks about playing for the @Raiders against the @Broncos and what it means to him to call this rivalry game on #MNF.
On Sept. 9, he will be teamed with @espnSteveLevy, @briangriese & @LauraRutledge.https://t.co/lMLXFvkdIu pic.twitter.com/Aswyd2Xbc4
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) May 15, 2019
I, too, cannot wait for it.
Let’s play football.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com