Throughout the NFL offseason, ESPN has recruited potential replacements for their Monday Night Football booth. But as much as they’ve worked to find a new crew, Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland remained a possible fallback option, until now.
The incumbent and highly scrutinized Monday Night Football team will not return for the 2020 NFL season according to Richard Deitsch of The Athletic. Although the duo won’t be part of the new Monday Night Football booth, Tessitore and McFarland will remain in prominent roles for ESPN.
New positions have not been announced by ESPN, but Tessitore will likely return to being a lead college football voice, just like his Monday Night Football predecessor, Sean McDonough did. McFarland is expected to have an NFL studio role. After weeks of speculation, we can officially say Tessitore and McFarland are no longer part of Monday Night Football, but who fills the booth remains a question.
Since Mike Tirico departed for NBC, ESPN’s Monday Night Football team has been a revolving door of announcers beginning with Sean McDonough and Jon Gruden. After one season, McDonough returned to college football, with Gruden accepting a 10-year contract offer to coach the Raiders. The booth then featured Tessitore and Jason Witten, with McFarland in a failed attempt of ingenuity, the BoogerMobile. After a very disappointing broadcast tenure, Witten returned to his NFL career, leaving just Tessitore and McFarland on the call.
But, the next time Monday Night Football is played on ESPN, it again will feature a different set of announcers. The network attempted to recruit high profile names such as Al Michaels, Tony Romo, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees in an effort to stabilize the broadcast. But ESPN was unable to lure any of them, which leaves appointing from within as their mostly likely option.
According to the New York Post, a pairing of play-by-play voice Steve Levy alongside analysts Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick or Brian Griese are the leading candidates to fill the booth. Other options have included their lead college broadcast team, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, while longshots Randy Moss, Pat McAfee, Nate Burleson and Kurt Warner could also be considered.
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.
