The sky-high uncertainty produced by the coronavirus pandemic will result in ESPN suits getting a pass on the new "Monday Night Football" broadcast team they select.
Yes, ESPN needs to choose voices to replace Anthony (Booger) McFarland and Joe Tessitore, but with a looming 2020 NFL season far from being a certainty, fans are going to care more, and be thrilled, if they even get a football season. These same fans are not going to care who is calling "MNF" games as long as the games are being played.
ESPN could go announcer-less, or use a one-man booth for social-distancing purposes, and the fans wouldn't care. Yet, if ESPN goes with a three- or two-person booth, and the 2020 NFL season is actually played, it will have every reason NOT to sign the new team to a multi-year contract and consider the 2020 season as an audition for the broadcast team.
No, not because ESPN has recently done a miserable job selecting "MNF" voices. This is about the 2020 season _ if there is one _ being highly unusual, even from a television standpoint. What could happen? Well, how about a-season-in-progress being suddenly shutdown because of a multitude of players suddenly testing positive for coronavirus. No matter how the voices were doing, did the Bristol Faculty see enough to either merit keeping them or dumping them and starting a new search?
If the 2020 season is played there's a good chance fans will not be allowed in the stadiums. Broadcasting in an empty stadium, with no crowd to play off of won't be easy, especially for broadcasters who have not worked together before. The whole "sound" of the broadcast will be altered.
Will a play-by-play voice sound silly cranking up an 80-yard punt return for a touchdown with no crowd noise or fake noise piped in? And in a "silent" stadium will the analyst's job be altered? Will a priority be placed on enhanced sounds from the field during a time when analysts are usually analyzing?
This NFL season _ if there is one (tired of hearing that?) _ will be an aberration from a TV standpoint. Not the greatest year to break in a new "MNF" crew. That's why the "new" team, even if it's only signed for one year, should be a two-person booth featuring an experienced nuts-and-bolts play-by-play voice and a battle-tested analyst working a no-frills production.
For ESPN, this is no time to get cute.
