By D23 Team
Ask any National Football League player, and they will tell you: There’s something special about Monday Night Football.
It’s been that way ever since the iconic program debuted on ABC in 1970. Monday night and professional football go together like Packer green and yellow, Cowboy blue and white, or Raider black and silver. Football on Monday night is the perfect play in the playbook.
The 49th season of Monday Night Football will kick off on ESPN with a doubleheader on Monday, September 10, beginning at 7:10 ET showcasing the new-look New York Jets—featuring USC rookie Sam Darnold—versus the Detroit Lions and their virtuoso quarterback, Matthew Stafford. Then it’s off to the Oakland Coliseum—known to Raider Nation as “The Black Hole”—for the intriguing matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Oakland Raiders, the latter now head coached by former ESPN football analyst Jon Gruden, who returns to coaching this year after nine seasons in the broadcasting booth.
This year, ESPN unveils a dynamic new NFL commentary team featuring play-by-play voice Joe Tessitore, analysts Jason Witten and Anthony “Booger” McFarland and sideline reporter Lisa Salters. Tessitore and Witten will be in the booth, while McFarland will bring a new perspective to the game each week as the first field-level analyst for professional football’s signature series. He’ll be spirited up and down the sidelines by a motorized cart equipped with a platform where he will be seated 10 feet above the field, providing incredible, over-the-line-of-scrimmage views for each snap—and more.
And to put it mildly, the new team at ESPN is definitely ready for some football.
“Booger and Jason are my dream team,” says Tessitore, who has nearly 20 seasons under his belt as a premier broadcaster of college football on ESPN and ABC. “With Boog and Witt, it was the chemistry and knowing we have only scratched the surface of what it will become. They felt like brothers or best friends in the booth with me. It has been effortless with them. This dynamic of having the field-level hovering analyst and the classic booth analyst is already revealing new dynamics that we’re liking [in pre-season games]. There’s a phrase I’ve been using during our preparations for the regular season: ‘joyful craftsmen.’ We love the craft of broadcasting football and being as knowledgeable as we can be, but we’re also very joyful, we’re very passionate about football and we really appreciate our opportunity to be doing this.”
Adds two-time Super Bowl champion McFarland, “If you watched me cover college football, you know there are two things I don’t normally like,” he says, “heights and cold weather! But seriously, it’s an outstanding view from where I sit and you see the game from a different perspective. They didn’t tell me at times I would be 10 feet in the air, so I’m trying my best not to look down, but it’s a distinctly different vantage point to take in a game, and it’s great for seeing the communications between, say, safeties and corners, linebackers and safeties. I think our audience is going to love it.”
For the new kid in town, former 15-year Dallas Cowboy tight-end great Jason Witten, who ranks fourth all-time in NFL history with 1,152 receptions, being selected to join the Monday Night Football team was nothing less than humbling. “Growing up, it was a night I looked forward to every week. I am honored and humbled to join this team. To play for the Cowboys for 15 years and then transition to the best job in American broadcasting, I know how fortunate I am. I know how much work goes into it, and the expectations that ESPN, the National Football League and Monday Night Football are all about.”
A versatile and accomplished reporter with more than two decades of experience, Lisa Salters returns for her seventh season of Monday Night Football. “I know it sounds kind of obnoxious, but it’s just so much fun to work with these guys. I remember how I felt my first Monday Night game… I was nervous, I was scared, and I had been doing television for 25 years, but still, I knew that this is Monday Night Football; it’s iconic and the biggest stage you can be on in sports. So I sent the guys a text [before the first pre-season game] just to say, ‘If you’re anything like me, I know you’re probably a little amped up now, but you’ve earned the right to start the next chapter of Monday Night Football history. My advice for them is to go out and be great, not just good.”
And talk about a lineup of classic Monday night matchups! How’s this? Schedule highlights include the aforementioned Rams tangling with the Kansas City Chiefs in Mexico City on November 19. Throw in appearances by both 2018 Super Bowl teams—New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles—and 11 of 12 playoff teams from 2017. All MNF games will be streamed live on all devices, including mobile phones, via the ESPN App.
“I think the schedule sets up wonderfully,” Tessitore adds. “Obviously, our first game is probably the best of opening weekend, with the return of Jon Gruden and the Raiders going against one of the most loaded rosters in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams could be the team in the NFC, Gruden’s return to “The Black Hole,” unbelievable stories, unbelievable game. We have great quarterback matchups, including Jimmy Garoppolo at Aaron Rodgers (San Francisco 49ers at Green Bay Packers) in the middle of the schedule. As we get deeper in the season, our games will have big playoff implications.”
In the end, Tessitore says that “constant communication” between broadcasters is what will seal the deal for MNF in 2018. “Is there anything I can do better for you? How did this feel, how did that feel? That’s basically what I’ve done for 20-plus years with every crew I’ve been on.”
Adds McFarland, “Witt and I both played a team sport, we both played football, but we had different roles. I was a defensive player, a great athlete, and Witt was a slow tight end! We both had different roles we had to fill. That helps us now. We’re still on the same team, but we have different roles, different vantage points, different viewpoints. We work individually to help our team, collectively, to put the best product on the air.”
ESPN’s 2018 Monday Night Football Schedule*
| Sept. 10 | 7:10 p.m. | New York Jets at Detroit Lions |
| 10:15 p.m. | Los Angeles Rams at Oakland Raiders | |
| Sept. 17 | 8:15 p.m. | Seattle Seahawks at Chicago Bears |
| Sept. 24 | 8:15 p.m. | Pittsburgh Steelers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| Oct. 1 | 8:15 p.m. | Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos |
| Oct. 8 | 8:15 p.m. | Washington Redskins at New Orleans Saints |
| Oct. 15 | 8:15 p.m. | San Francisco 49ers at Green Bay Packers |
| Oct. 22 | 8:15 p.m. | New York Giants at Atlanta Falcons |
| Oct. 29 | 8:15 p.m. | New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills |
| Nov. 5 | 8:15 p.m. | Tennessee Titans at Dallas Cowboys |
| Nov. 12 | 8:15 p.m. | New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers |
| Nov. 19 | 8:15 p.m. | Kansas City Chiefs vs. Los Angeles Rams (Mexico City) |
| Nov. 26 | 8:15 p.m. | Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans |
| Dec. 3 | 8:15 p.m. | Washington Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles |
| Dec. 10 | 8:15 p.m. | Minnesota Vikings at Seattle Seahawks |
| Dec. 17 | 8:15 p.m. | New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers |
| Dec. 24 | 8:15 p.m. | Denver Broncos at Oakland Raiders |
| Jan. 5–6 | TBD | NFL Wild Card Playoff Game |
*All times ET
