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."
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