Goodnight Canada:Kornheiser leaves Monday Night Football crew

Tony Kornheiser resigned from the Monday Night Football crew today. After just a short stint, Kornheiser will be replaced by former Raiders and Bucs Head Coach John Gruden.

As much as everyone seems to be “hating” on Tony Kornheiser today, I feel the need to be fair.

Tony is sometimes loud, opinionated and yes, he’s “orange”. For all it’s worth, he is a great broadcaster. Whether it has been writing for the Washington Post, hosting “The Tony Kornheiser Show” or working as the co-host on PTI over the last 20 years, Tony has done it admirably.

Though most rate what he did on MNF as poorly done, many fail to realize what TK was being asked to do.

Many have never been in a broadcast booth. Even more so, many people don't realize what it took for him to do what he should have never been asked to do in the first place. TK's job was to add filler and be funny in 10 to 17 second clips in the middle of a nationally televised football game.

First off, why?

Having a non-football conversation with a football audience was destined to mark him as anything but funny. How quickly we forget the joke Dennis Miller was at the same job. The only thing funny about Miller was that he didn’t know he was the joke.

At least Tony had a sports background coming into the gig. The fact that he and Jaws didn’t get along in the booth, made for a sort of tension that could be felt by the viewers. They rarely agreed, and one or the other was sure to contradict what had just been said.

I think Gruden will be better for one reason alone… he’s a football guy that is not going to be expected to be funny. We can just get back to talking football once and for all. We don’t need Chris Rock, Jeff Foxworthy or even Frank Caliendo for that matter in the broadcast booth during a football game.

Caliendo might be amusing for a while with all of his impressions, but even that would get old quick.

Frankly, bits like this are just out of place. Not only that, they are just flat out dangerous. The suits wanted to make a massive audience even bigger. The idea was to pull in the “non-football crowd”, but you run the risk of losing the football crowd in the process.

It wasn’t Kornheiser’s fault. He was asked to do a job, and he gave it his best shot.

You don’t take a drywall guy and ask him to pour concrete do you? They may work in the same business of construction, but their functions are far from the same. Sure you can hand the dry wall guy a trial and ask him to make the sidewalk, but when the job comes out less than even, it’s not fair to criticize the guy you stuck in the wrong job.

"The BottomLine" here sports fans is simple. Tony made a great career decision stepping down. I admire the choice, and I hope that those who have given him a less than fond fair-well would consider giving him the respect he deserves.

Tony you are a class act and tonight in honor of you I wave the flag and say "Goodnight Canada."

Brett Favre's Behavior a Racial Issue?

Ok so I know it has been a while. But I am really steamed off and here is why...

Journalist Rob Parker was brought in to debate Skip Bayless this morning on ESPN's First Take morning show. During the First and Ten segment of the show specific topics about subjects in sports are brought up for debate. I emphasize “specific” here. During the First and Ten segment of the show the topic of Brett Favre came up. The topic concerning Favre was a question asking “should Favre be interested in joining the Vikings for the 2009 season?”

After a short answer from Skip Bayless, Parker went on to ignore the question asked and stated that the whole Brett Favre issue would not be happening if he were any other player in the league (most likely true). Then he dropped a bomb that was not only uncalled for, but also completely inappropriate. Parker went on to say that “If it were Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson or any other African American player in the league in this same situation this would not be tolerated.”

Why Rob? For what reason would you take a debate about a Hall of Fame Quarterback that can be accused of being incapable of making up his mind, selfish or at worst maybe too old to play the game and turn it into a racial issue? Is race a valid topic that should be addressed? Absolutely! At the proper time and in the proper context any discussion is valid. But it stands to be said that not every issue in our society is racially charged. Not only is this uncalled for it once again proves what many people began to think of Parker when he shot his mouth off at a Lions press conference a few months back. He is handling the power and privilege of being on one of the world’s biggest stages as a journalist with mindless disregard in terms of the power of his words. The spoken and written word are the weapons and tools of the trade, and at no time is there careful consideration about what is coming from that ignorant seep hole in the middle of his face.

The “BottomLine” here is put best this way: “It is better to remain silent and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Rob Parker has without a doubt opened his mouth and removed all doubt about his mentality and his ignorance in terms of how he thinks and the motivation with which he does it. When a journalist clearly has an agenda questions need to be asked. He has disgraced the profession by going too far once again, and for once I hope Rob Parker is the guy that society will not tolerate.