The NFL will officially be back Thursday night and the new ESPN booth of Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick will be back in action on Monday night to call the second game of a doubleheader featuring the Tennessee Titans and Denver Broncos (10:15 p.m ET, ESPN). It will be their first game together as the official broadcasters of Monday Night Football
The trio did call last year’s week 1 game between the Broncos and Raiders.
On Monday, Levy, Griese, and Riddick appeared on The Adam Schefter Podcast for the first time as a trio. As Levy pointed out, the microscope should be on ESPN because of the amount of great games that appear to be on the schedule as of right now.
“I’ve heard executives at our place say that this is the best Monday Night Football schedule in over a decade. We are set up, by the people we have that you will see on television and behind the scenes especially, for success. We have been put in a position to succeed by a lot of smart people that work at the very top of our place.”
Levy feels that the transition to the booth won’t fully take effect for him until next week when the three of them have the sole game on the Monday night slate when the Las Vegas Raiders open their new stadium against the New Orleans Saints.
During this opening weekend of the NFL, there will be an emphasis on what goes on from the players in terms of raising awareness for social justice and what teams decide to do. As Levy points out, it is a message you he hopes can tie into the game.
“There will be opportunities I think in the broadcast and it might be once or twice a quarter to have an opinion and to tie that into the football on the field and the feelings of the players. Getting the players, coaches, GM’s, hopefully ownership and getting those messages out there and combining that with our own personal messages.
“The interesting part will be to manage that. I think there’s a part of the population that probably just wants to be entertained for those 3 hours on Monday night but there’s probably a greater majority I think that wants to know certainly what Louis has to say on the topic and Brian and I will not be able to stay silent. There’s a fine line there.”
Riddick did mention how ESPN has been a network willing to have those conversations about social justice and knows that he has the platform to be an inspiration to many people watching him every Monday night.
“It’s real. It’s traumatic. I would never try to run from it. I can’t run from it anyway because I am one of the people that has experienced forms of being treated unequal or unfairly at different points in my life. Having the platform that I have now I think it inspires people that are African-American or minorities to never give up hope that you can achieve something significant in your life. I take that very seriously.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of changes to broadcasts and many zoom meetings with players and coaches, Riddick mentioned how he embraces that challenge because it is something we are all doing in society.
“It’s going to be so unorthodox in many ways because it has to be. What a great opportunity to really put on display without making it about you, the broadcaster. To be a part of this in a year where there are so many eyes and so many varying opinions to accept and step up to the challenge of doing something. I want that challenge.”
