ESPN's Booger Mobile is dying a slow death

[joewilly12]

ESPN’s Booger Mobile is dying a slow death

By Andrew Marchand

January 2, 2019 | 3:23pm | Updated 

 

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Booger McFarlandIcon Sportswire via Getty Images

Monday Night Football’s Booger Mobile will rest in peace next to Fox’s glowing puck in the dreaded “Oops” Sports TV Hall of Fame.

ESPN will not use the Booger Mobile on the sideline for its wild-card game broadcast of Colts-Texans on Saturday. Booger McFarland will be in the booth with Joe Tessitore and Jason Witten. ESPN is saying it will re-evaluate after the season if it will bring the Booger Mobile back for next year.

After citing weather to bench the Booger Mobile last Monday and now forsaking it for the playoffs, which combines with the previous plan to leave it parked for the Pro Bowl and ESPN’s international broadcast of the Super Bowl, it is not hard to predict how that postseason meeting will go.

Meeting leader: Should we bring back the Booger Mobile?

Everyone in meeting: No!

Next topic.

We were not a proponent of the Booger Mobile from the second it was announced. It overcomplicated the broadcast; especially since ESPN sold the new MNF team as built on fun and great chemistry.

MNF lead producer Jay Rothman compared Tessitore to a “young Brent Musburger/Frank Sinatra combo,” while Witten was “Captain America” and McFarland “football’s Charles Barkley,” which, if true, always made the Booger Mobile feel like Rothman was attempting to be a combo of a young Martin Scorsese and John DeLorean.

While putting McFarland in a high chair on the sideline was an injustice to him, it actually made Tessitore’s and Witten’s jobs much harder. McFarland could just try to analyze the game, while Tessitore and Witten in the booth had to try to figure out how to incorporate McFarland from the sideline. It added another variable, which made it so Witten infamously had to “pull a rabbit out of his head.”

Next up for ESPN to decide, is if it wants this trio together next year. While this playoff look might stick, that question will be genuinely discussed in the postseason meeting.

[Grandy]

Thank goodness 

[Untouchable]

I wish some other network picked up Monday Night Football so I’d never have to tune into that sh*t station. 

[Ghost]

Those commentators are by far the worst I’ve ever heard in ANY sport. They need to be replaced immediately. 

[section314]

So is the network that created it.

[Beerfish]

16 minutes ago, Untouchable said:

I wish some other network picked up Monday Night Football so I’d never have to tune into that sh*t station. 

It is so dreadful now.  Worst version of it ever including the dennis miller. kornheiser era

[20andOut]

We can only hope

[Jet_Engine1]

Joe Tessitore Sucks. Bad. Hes the worst guy in a 2 man booth....a booth where the other guy is Jason Witten. 

[joenamathwouldn'tcry]

Thought Booger Mobile was a linebacker for the Falcons.

[JohnnyLV]

This really is the worst crew announcing football. It really is awful to watch.

Remember the no broadcaster Jet game?

With todays technology, social media, graphics they could do something similar but knock it out the park. No play by play or color, but you could do things like use the radio feeds for highlights in the game, have crews that discuss replays and officiating calls. Have like little 15 second reaction pieces before and after commercials. Use interactive polls and unqiue graphics to frame the stats. Have graphics that at times highlight players and their fantasy stats. But when a QB is under center use the technology to let people experience the game just like at a stadium, fresh and uncluttered with chatter and opinion. Make it immersive

Stop hiring uninteresting former players and thinking they add to the broadcast

 

 

 

[shevys]

I’d rather eat my own boogers than listen to Booger. 

[Jet9]

Really not seeing how sideline reporter in a chair made it harder for the guys in the booth but I guess we're all victims these days. 

[David Harris]

I like Booger’s commentary- glad he’s still be on

[redlichtie]

2 hours ago, Jet9 said:

Really not seeing how sideline reporter in a chair made it harder for the guys in the booth but I guess we're all victims these days. 

Because two people in a room chatting about something forget about the 3rd person in the room when the 3rd person isn’t in the room.

[SheaRay]

6 hours ago, David Harris said:

I like Booger’s commentary- glad he’s still be on

I agree. 

[Jetster]

7 hours ago, David Harris said:

I like Booger’s commentary- glad he’s still be on

Booger is excellent on radio too. The guy has great insight, is very funny & most importantly TELLS IT LIKE IT IS. He has no problem being critical. I hate broadcasts where the announcers tells us how great everyone is, say nothing about horrific calls, (Fouts last week calling Gilmores obvious PI a great defensive play), and my all time pet peeve, ignoring horrible spots by the officials.

[peebag]

10 hours ago, joenamathwouldn'tcry said:

Thought Booger Mobile was a linebacker for the Falcons.

Really?  I thought it was my right index finger.

[Jetsfan80]

A grown man who has people call him "Booger" needs to be kept far, far away from a TV screen. 

The current MNF crew never lets games breathe, ever.  They talk and talk and talk and say stupid things in the process because they think every f***ing second a 4 hour football game needs to have constant commentary.  And the ESPN Baseball crew does the exact same thing. 

Meanwhile there once was an NFL game where they decided to have no commentary whatsoever, and people were cool with it. 

[Rexorcism]

Those commentators are by far the worst I’ve ever heard in ANY sport. They need to be replaced immediately. 

Wrong, the woman announcer that tries to sound like a man doing games is slightly worse.

[ChuckkieB]

Booger is not the problem in this whole thing.  His insight is far and away better than Witten's.  , Whitten always seems nervous as hell and speaks fast and like he has marbles in his mouth, and for an ex player, he adds very little value to the broadcast.  Once the ESPN execs get over his Captain America persona, he will be out of there.  

[Xtina]

10 hours ago, johnnysd said:

This really is the worst crew announcing football. It really is awful to watch.

Remember the no broadcaster Jet game?

With todays technology, social media, graphics they could do something similar but knock it out the park. No play by play or color, but you could do things like use the radio feeds for highlights in the game, have crews that discuss replays and officiating calls. Have like little 15 second reaction pieces before and after commercials. Use interactive polls and unqiue graphics to frame the stats. Have graphics that at times highlight players and their fantasy stats. But when a QB is under center use the technology to let people experience the game just like at a stadium, fresh and uncluttered with chatter and opinion. Make it immersive

Stop hiring uninteresting former players and thinking they add to the broadcast

 

 

 

You should copyright these ideas before they steal them 

[JohnnyLV]

3 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

A grown man who has people call him "Booger" needs to be kept far, far away from a TV screen. 

The current MNF crew never lets games breathe, ever.  They talk and talk and talk and say stupid things in the process because they think every f***ing second a 4 hour football game needs to have constant commentary.  And the ESPN Baseball crew does the exact same thing. 

Meanwhile there once was an NFL game where they decided to have no commentary whatsoever, and people were cool with it. 

I watched a video on Youtube of a game Summerall and Madden covered. It was amazing how little they talked really.

[Integrity28]

Worst broadcast team on MNF of my lifetime. Witten having that job is a disgrace.

[Tony MaC]

What idiot thought that was a good idea anyway? Somebody uses their hard earned cash on front row seats to the Monday night game, probably costing hundreds and then some jackass parks his vehicle in front of them so they can't see half or even all of the field so THEY could get a better view? Nonsense. 

[joewilly12]

I miss Howard Cosell. 

[Larz]

Best booth of all time is madden summerall. When you heard those voices it was time to float away to pro football heaven 

 

 

[Jet9]

17 hours ago, redlichtie said:

Because two people in a room chatting about something forget about the 3rd person in the room when the 3rd person isn’t in the room.

Every broadcast has a sideline person.The article wants to blame the device instead of the announcers

[redlichtie]

6 hours ago, Jet9 said:

Every broadcast has a sideline person.The article wants to blame the device instead of the announcers

Yes they do but the sideline reporter is very different to having effectively a 3rd annaouncer/analyst. The comms team are supposed to bounce off one another and add to whatever each is saying, often after every play. That’s extremely tough to do when one of you isn’t in the booth. The body language between presenters in the same room should allow them to talk without ever talking over each other or without awkward silences. It’s not necessarily a failing of the announcers just an extremely difficult broadcasting trick to pull off slickly all the time

The sideline reporters are just there to find an angle to report maybe once per quarter or even half or to go to if there’s an incident, such as an injury, that the sideline reporter has better access to. They come in on a producers cue, often after having flagged up whatever the issue is themselves or in the case of an injury they’ll have been instructed to go and find out what it is and report back

 

[redlichtie]

13 hours ago, johnnysd said:

I watched a video on Youtube of a game Summerall and Madden covered. It was amazing how little they talked really.

There’s a great article somewhere on the net about the greatest sporting commentaries and commentators and the general theme is that the great ones understand the power of silence and just letting the pictures breath. The best example was Vin Scully commentating on the Kirk Gibson Grand Slam home run in the 1988 World Series, after painting some beautiful pictures with his words in the lead up to the hit he let the actual moment go with a very simple ‘high fly ball, GONE....” and proceeded to say absolutely nothing for almost 2 minutes.....the result is awesome, just incredible pictures. When he finally does talk it is typically simple and typically lyrical. A truly incredible sporting moment enhanced by, not ruined by, the commentator.

EDIT: Link to the article below

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/jan/09/the-joy-of-six-great-moments-in-sport-commentary

[Jet9]

11 hours ago, redlichtie said:

Yes they do but the sideline reporter is very different to having effectively a 3rd annaouncer/analyst. The comms team are supposed to bounce off one another and add to whatever each is saying, often after every play. That’s extremely tough to do when one of you isn’t in the booth. The body language between presenters in the same room should allow them to talk without ever talking over each other or without awkward silences. It’s not necessarily a failing of the announcers just an extremely difficult broadcasting trick to pull off slickly all the time

The sideline reporters are just there to find an angle to report maybe once per quarter or even half or to go to if there’s an incident, such as an injury, that the sideline reporter has better access to. They come in on a producers cue, often after having flagged up whatever the issue is themselves or in the case of an injury they’ll have been instructed to go and find out what it is and report back

 

NBC sports does it with the hockey every night.