The third time may have been the charm, because ESPN reportedly won’t look to shake up its Monday Night Football booth for a fourth consecutive year. Richard Deitsch of The Athletic reports that Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese are set to come back for the 2021 season.
In years past, ESPN has chased Peyton Manning, Tony Romo, and Al Michaels amongst others for a role on Monday night. The World Wide Leader was rebuffed by each. There had been some speculation that the network might try to lure the recently retired Phillip Rivers into a role this season, but it appears that will not be the case.
ESPN’s game of Monday Night musical chairs began after the 2017 season, when Jon Gruden left the analyst role to return to the then-Oakland Raiders. Since that time, Monday Night Football has gone through two different play-by-play announcers and four analysts.
According to Awful Announcing, the current booth is an improvement over the previous combo of Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland in its most recent fan poll of NFL broadcast booths. It’s hard to say whether that information played a role in the decision, but when this booth was assembled before the 2020 season, it certainly did not have the feel of anything more than a band-aid for the brand. Executives in Bristol are clearly happy to see the kind of response to Levy, Riddick, and Griese that they have.
