I don’t care how talented and strong you are as a defensive football player. When you see Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry coming at you with a full head of steam, there has to be a part of you that says, “This is gonna hurt.”
Last year, I raved about Manningcast, the alternate Monday Night Football broadcast on ESPN2 with Peyton and Eli Manning discussing the game while watching it along with viewers. I get more insight from their observations and strategy discussions in a single quarter than in a whole season of Troy Aikman’s blather on Fox. The Mannings have improved over the last few seasons, and the addition of retired coach Bill Belichick this fall has made the broadcast even better. No matter what you think of him, Belichick has one of the best football minds in the world, and with good questions framed by the Manning brothers, the chemistry clicks and increases my comprehension of the game even more. Together, the three are setting a new standard for NFL analysis.
Speaking of Monday Night Football, Disney has announced that it will simulcast six more of those games on ABC (in addition to ESPN, which carries all of them). The company is promoting it as a way to broaden viewership. What they’re not saying is that ABC is in desperate need of primetime programming that will draw a larger audience than its lame scripted shows — at much less expense, too.