ESPN has gone to great lengths to try to ensure Jason Witten is the right fit for its “Monday Night Football” broadcast booth — which the longtime Cowboys tight end will join after he retired from the NFL on Thursday.
For weeks now, new MNF play-by-play man Joe Tessitore not only has been auditioning prospective candidates on the Bristol campus, but also has been spending the day with each prospect, eating meals and even having them come over to his house. It has been an expansive and intense process for Tessitore and ESPN’s decision-makers.
Sources said ESPN has been going to these lengths in part because it wants an improved chemistry the network thought the previous MNF team, Sean McDonough and Jon Gruden, lacked. McDonough, a respected play-by-play man, was taken off the game, but given a soft landing spot, assuming Tessitore’s former role as the No. 2 college football game caller behind Chris Fowler. Gruden left for a $100 million contract to coach the Raiders.
ESPN had wanted Peyton Manning to be “the next Tony Romo,” but struck out. The network considered Brett Favre, but decided he was not the right fit.
ESPN auditioned a whole crew of prospective analysts, including Kurt Warner, Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, ESPN analysts Louis Riddick, Booger McFarland, Randy Moss and Rex Ryan, among others. It is still possible they could add a third person to the booth, though nearly all play-by-play announcers prefer a two-man team.
ESPN is taking a huge gamble with Witten, who, according to the Dallas Morning News, will be paid between $4 million and $4.5 million. Neither he nor Tessitore ever has called an NFL game, and “Monday Night Football” is a heck of a place to start.
Witten is an unknown as an analyst, but he was a Cowboy. That last fact seems to be very important. Of the four lead NFL game analysts, three — Witten, Romo (CBS) and Troy Aikman (FOX) — played for Dallas. Only Cris Collinsworth (NBC) has no Cowboys connection.
Still, here is the thing for Witten, just as with Romo a year ago: No one knows how good he will be. CBS receives full marks for Romo, but there was some luck involved.
Will ESPN be as fortunate?
On his return show, Mike Francesa only mentioned one specific offer as an alternative to returning to WFAN. It was the VSiN gambling network, which was started by Brian Musburger and his uncle, Brent. Sources said that VSiN (Vegas Sports and Information Network) wanted Francesa to work its Triple Crown shows on SiriusXM and its video platforms. There may have been more components to the offer, but it is unlikely that they would be able to come close to matching the more than $1 million that Francesa is receiving from WFAN. Francesa has a long history with the Musburgers, as Francesa started his career as an intern for Brent and then went on to be his chief researcher. At the beginning of Brian’s career, he interned with Francesa.
ESPN says its ratings for the 6 p.m. “SportsCenter” without Jemele Hill and Michael Smith are up 9 percent from April last year to this year.
ESPN has not settled on permanent hosts for the 6 p.m. program, as of yet. It will have Stephen A. Smith host the show during the NBA Finals. One day, ESPN will be 24 hours of Stephen A., A-Rod and NFL mock drafts.
ESPN cited sources in first reporting it was hiring Witten to be its MNF analyst. The reporters who broke the stories on Witten were NFL insider Chris Mortensen and ESPN Cowboys reporter Todd Archer. They very well could have had football sources, but ESPN still looks a little ridiculous, citing sources, about a person joining its organization and then having its PR team decline comment.
There are no perfect answers about how ESPN should handle the situation. The problem is, where do the business and journalism lines cross? The Post first reported that Witten auditioned for “Monday Night,” but, if ESPN is reporting on itself, shouldn’t it have broken that story, too? Witten, after all, was considering hanging up his shoulder pads at that point.
CBS will have Bruce Arians on its third NFL team, joining Greg Gumbel and Trent Green. Good for CBS investing in a group that won’t ever see a playoff game, but that could be improved.
