Theismann Takes Another Sack.

Via Off Wing Opinion, I find a Washington Post tidbit that seems to confirm reports at Deadspin, the Fanhouse, and Awful Announcing that Joe Theismann will be gone from Monday Night Football next year (the original rumor came from Pro Football Talk).

So much of last year's suck surrounding Monday Night Football isn't necessarily due to Theismann, as I'm sure having unrelated celebrity guests in the booth wasn't his bright idea; he just went along to get along and earn a paycheck. However, it didn't help that he and Tony Kornheiser (who ought to be next) had absolutely no chemistry as far as broadcasting went, and was less likely to talk about or explain what was actually going on with the game than a semi-irrelevant tangent.

This won't fix much, though -- it's treating the symptoms rather than curing the disease.

ESPN's management of Monday Night Football so far has been a joke -- mostly due to the apparent premise by producers and the network that it ought to be an entertainment spectacle first and a football game second. If you're trying to attract viewers to a broadcast channel, I get that a bit more. But this is ESPN, specialized and oriented towards the sports-addicted -- if anything, this would have demanded more specialization, more analysis, not less, and the proof provided in the first week, where Brad Nessler, Dick Vermeil, and Ron Jaworski (Theismann's rumored replacement) outdid the so-called A team was enough validation.