During an offseason of courting high-profile personalities to join their Monday Night Football broadcast, ESPN finally named an addition to the booth. Wednesday afternoon, the network announced Phil Dean as its new producer for Monday Night Football.
Dean joined ESPN in 1992, having worked as a college football producer for the past 15 years. Since the start of the College Football Playoff in 2014, Dean worked a national semifinal game each season as well as producing ESPN Saturday Primetime telecasts. His credentials also include producing NBA games and serving as ESPN’s lead college basketball producer for 12 years.
“It is truly an honor and a blessing to be named the new producer on Monday Night Football,” Dean said in the press release. “A huge thank you to Jimmy Pitaro, Connor Schell, Stephanie Druley and Lee Fitting for trusting me and my abilities with this amazing franchise. Six great producers came before me and I look forward to continuing their level of excellence.”
Dean will work alongside Jimmy Platt, who took over as Monday Night Football’s director last year.
“Phil is as innovative and creative an event producer as we have at ESPN, and we are thrilled to make him the next producer of Monday Night Football,” said Connor Schell, ESPN EVP of Content. “Over the course of his impressive career, Phil has demonstrated his ability to lead with great vision, and has left his mark on every sport category that he has worked on. Together, he and director Jimmy Platt will do a wonderful job leading the MNF team moving forward.”
Dean takes over the producer role for Jay Rothman, who worked on MNF since the telecast moved to ESPN in 2006. Prior to MNF, Rothman produced Sunday Night Football on ESPN from 2001-05. Rothman’s departure from MNF was reported earlier this year, but the longtime ESPN producer will continue in a new role with the network.
While high-profile names such as Tony Romo, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Al Michaels were reported as candidates for ESPN’s MNF booth at various points during the offseason, the telecast, as of now still consists of play-by-play voice Joe Tessitore and analyst Booger McFarland.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
