The vacant ad slot “Monday Night Football” appears to be close to being filled.
According to reports by Jim Miller and Andrew Marchand, ESPN is expected to announce a three-man “MNF” booth for the 2020 NFL season: game analyst Steve Levy and color commentators Louis Riddick and Brian Griese, both former NFL players
I just submitted a column on Monday Night Football.
Steve Levy, Brian Griese and Louis Riddick are expected to be the new team, the sources confirmed. @ JimMiller said he was listening to that. His ears were correct.
I’ll tweet my shot when it’s edited.
– Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) July 31, 2020
The network chose to shuffle the booth after last season. Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland have handled games in the past two seasons. They were also joined by Jason Witten in the 2018 season before retiring to join the Dallas Cowboys.
Could ESPN’s plans change?
Miller’s reports are interesting. He points out that things could change if the college football season is canceled. That suggests that Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit’s CFB tandem could take over if that situation develops.
As things stand now, Fowler and Herbstreit will convene the first scheduled game of the MNF doubleheader in Week 1.
The Levy, Riddick and Griese trio, along with high school reporter Laura Rutledge, rated the second game of last year’s ESPN doubleheader, the Week 1 game between the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders. Levy and Griese have teamed up for years calling college football together.
Riddick is a mainstay for ESPN’s NFL and college football coverage on several different platforms.
The MNF booth has been a kind of revolving door since Mike Tirico left the network for NBC. He handled play-by-play work from 2006 to 2015. Jon Gruden was a partner at Tirico for most of those years, and stayed for another two years, alongside Sean McDonough, until the 2017 season, before taking office in that moment. Oakland Raiders head coach job.
Would canceling college football result in a change from the reported trio of Levy, Riddick and Griese? That is not clear. An email to two ESPN spokespersons has yet to be answered.
But for now, it seems we have some clarity on who will call the games this season on Monday nights. I mean, if the NFL season happens.
