With ESPN moving on from Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland on Monday Night Football, who are the best candidates to replace the duo?
For the third time in less than ten years, ESPN will be searching for a new face, or faces in this instance, of Monday Night Football. This time the network will be looking to replace Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland.
Tessitore was the voice of Monday Night Football for the last two seasons. After spending much of his ESPN career working college football, Tessitore got the shot at the network’s top NFL job. He spent one year with Jason Witten and 2019 with McFarland.
It seems like ESPN’s dismissal of the pair has more to do with the public’s disapproval of McFarland, rather than dislike for Tessitore. Consensus seems to be the network would rather replace both of them than give Tessitore a third color commentator in three years.
The Monday Night Football job has been a revolving door since Mike Tirico left ESPN for NBC after the 2015 season. Tirico held the job since 2006 and seems to be the best option the network had. Him and, now Las Vegas Raiders coach, Jon Gruden had an incredible connection in the booth, something ESPN is still looking to replicate.
After Tirico left for NBC, ESPN moved Sean McDonough from college to Monday Night Football, and he held that job for 2016 and 2017. McDonough worked with Gruden, but after he left for the Raiders, ESPN wanted a new face.
For these options, rather than just present play-by-play announcers, we will present what we think are the best pairs to get one of the league’s most coveted jobs.