Monday Night Football on ESPN

[heathwaldrop]

Matt Jones had a good game tonight. Not great because I think that he should have had at least two more catches, possibly even two TDs, and his speed and quickness look lost to me. He still has a tendency to take a bit to get started.

Anyway though, I'm not wild about this new MNF format. I don't much care for the team that they have in the booth. They definitely aren't Al Michaels and John Madden. And it's obvious too that the demographic has changed. The entire point of MNF in the beginning was to reach a broader audience that maybe wasn't a sports fan, or at least not an NFL fan. So you saw entertainment stars and politicians make visits, lots of movie and TV promos during the commercial breaks, etc. etc. etc., in this effort to appeal to women and casual male sports fans. With the move to ESPN it's clear that they're going after a more hard-core NFL audience, and clearly the men as there were MANY shots of the good-looking women on the sidelines.

Also have you guys noticed the new official's uniform? Isn't that somethign? I'd never have thought about changing the zebra stripes but they're different this year, sort of resemble a striped tuxedo.

[Outlaw85]

Kind of hard to get into Monday Night Football this year. I miss Al and John. Madden has always been my favorite color man. Madden and Michaels were the best combo ABC ever put together.

As for the refs uniforms, i hate them but not as much as the Oregon Ducks new uniforms. Those really suck!! I saw the various combos for Oregon in The Sporting News a few weeks back. All ugly! When it comes to my football, i hate change from tradition. Although I must admit Tampa Bay made a good move when they changed theirs.

[heathwaldrop]

I like uniform changes. Keep the basic colors but change the uniforms from time to time.

I was speaking of Oregon in another thread, but I'll bet you those goofy uniforms is one of the things that draws in recruits that never would have thought of going there otherwise. Sounds stupid but I guarantee that it's true.

[jwh]

i saw on....i thinki it was espn that oregon uses the uniforms thing as a recruiting tool.....i believe they said that had over 40 or so variations of the uniform.....

[jwh]

i got to thinking about those uniforms and i went to the uof o website and they say there are 348 different combinations of uniforms.....this includes socks, shoes,3 different helmets and numerous combinations of shirts and pants.....