Hank Williams Jr, Says What We're All Thinking About Monday Night Football
Thursday, September 18, 2008
In an interview yesterday with Sports Business Daily, your rowdy friend and mine, Hank Williams Jr. was asked a couple of questions about the differences between MNF on ABC and ESPN. The man who's been singing the opening MNF theme for twenty years didn't pull any punches when comparing the two and had this to say....
Q: How much do you feel like your career is identified with Monday Night"Special" is right my friend. If you ever want a shock to your system, sit through both the Sunday and Monday nighter this week. From top to bottom, NBC is a far superior product. And while ESPN is certainly trying to improve, they seem to be stuck in the mud at the moment. Well in every facet but ratings that is.
Football?
Williams: I'll put it this way. I checked into a hotel in Detroit and
everybody is saying, "Who is that?" And then one of the doormen says, "Man,
what's wrong with you? That¹s the rowdy friend." That was hilarious. He
couldn't come up with my name. He just called me the rowdy friend. I went to
a game in Yankee Stadium last year, and, let me tell you, they were all over
me.
Q: Just because of Monday Night Football?
Williams: Oh, of course. I mean, come on. Twenty years of millions of
viewers, seven Super Bowls -- yeah, that had a little bit of an impact. A
one-year deal that's turned into an American signature of sports.
Q: How have things changed on the broadcast?
Williams: In the words of AL MICHAELS, he said, "Man, you¹re the only one
left." We kind of all know each other. And we¹ve been through the Mickey
Mouse thing, you know.
Q: What do you mean?
Williams: ABC moving to ESPN. Now they're all over there at that other
place.
Q: Have you noticed a change in going from ABC to ESPN?
Williams: I think everybody has, sure. You've got different people, you've
got a learning curve with new people, you've got other people that come back
into the fold. And all of a sudden, it's a little bit different. We're not
back there with (HOWARD) COSELL and (DON) MEREDITH and all that. But it¹s
still special.
Oh and Hank, be careful my friend. That "Mouse" is very powerful and those twenty, one-year contracts you've enjoyed can quickly come to an end. Don't bit the hand that's been feeding you all these years.
(Via SBD)
7 Comments:
"Special" like Special K the cereal or special like the Kleiniman boy down the street?
And if you go back and watch old MNF games, you notice how the announcers didn't interject with stupid shit every five seconds just so they could hear themselves speak and giggle.
Even Miller wasn't nearly as obnoxious and useless as Tony Kornholer. Dennis Miller at least liked the game.
Dennis Miller could not careless about the game he was doing Okay. Before doing MNF for those 2 seasons, Miller had gone to 1 football game in his life. That seems like someone that cared about the game.
Watch out, Hank, or you'll be replaced by those singing losers from those horrendous High School Musical movies or Miley Cyrus. It's bound to happen, knowing Disney/ESPN.
Fire Kornheiser now!
Honestly, I understand the anti-Kornheiser sentiment. But, I think it gets out of control. People were ripping him for talking about Jackie Robinson instead of the game, but I think he brings an everyman approach to the game. I understand Jaws likes to watch tape. I also understand the game of football pretty well, and I understand football strategy; that being said, I don't like hearing Jaws yap on about how many different formations the Eagles can use Brian Westbrook in, and I really feel like the average fan doesn't care if a team puts a slot receiver in motion to run an inside screen against a man-free defense to exploit the weakside linebacker since the middle linebacker is spying the running back... If we all made a living breaking down film, we could all pick out the wrinkles, but one of the great things about not being an upper-level coach is not having to watch 90 hours of game film to enjoy the game. While I agree that Tony is obnoxious on MNF, it's not like he's being given a lot of juicy material to bounce ideas off of, a la PTI, with someone as robotic as Jaws.
How much better would MNF be without Kornheiser? 300%? 850%?