It Was Another Rough Night for ESPN's 'Monday Night Football' Booth: TRAINA THOUGHTS
1. If you are a broadcaster, getting bashed by viewers comes with the territory. Having said that, I felt bad for Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland on Monday night.
Listen, the difference between each network's top broadcasting team (Buck/Aikman, Nantz/Romo, Michaels/Collinsworth) and ESPN's is stark. It's not breaking news to say there's a significant drop off.
But because Monday Night Football is a standalone game and because ESPN wants to convince everyone that Monday Night Football is still a big deal, the telecast gets picked apart and every miscue by the announcers becomes a big deal.
Monday night was no different, but Tesstitore and McFarland certainly didn't help their own cause, giving Twitter plenty of fodder thanks to their blunders.
Tessitore got tongue tied during the game and referred to Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf as "Decaf Metcalf."
Play-by-play people are always going to botch names. Some more than others, which you know if you ever watch a game that Dick Stockton is calling.
However, Twitter wasn't going to give Tessitore a pass on this one. Traina Thoughts favorite, Chris Long, even changed his Twitter name in honor of the blunder, while many others chimed in.
McFarland caused a stir by saying the Vikings have a history of getting burnt by fluke plays and citing the "Minneapolis Miracle." The only problem with that is the "Minneapolis Miracle" was the opposite of a play that hurt the Vikings since it refers to Stefon Diggs's game-winning touchdown catch against the Saints in a playoff game.
Twitter was so harsh to Booger for this one that I'm not even going to post any of the tweets because they're so mean.
McFarland, though, owned up to the gaffe and apologized.
I'm not defending the errors or saying that Tessitore and McFarland are a good listen, but I do think viewers have now made the duo their weekly punching bag and that's a bigger problem for ESPN than a couple of gaffes.
2. Billie Eilish has never heard of Van Halen, but luckily the Seahawks have heard of New Edition and busted out a celebration dance Monday night to pay tribute to the '80s R&B group.
3. It's been one hell of a run for Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo.
4. Interesting ratings nugget via Sports Business Journal: With Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant MIA, ratings for Warriors games are down 51% on the team's local station NBC Sports Bay Area.
5. The Celtics had a snowball fight.
6. If you missed it over the Thanksgiving holiday, a new SI Media Podcast dropped with Katie Nolan. Topics we discussed included Always Late with Katie Nolan moving from digital to TV, doing comedy vs. doing monologues, her issues with people who cover sports media, why the RedZone Channel is porn, why she loves soccer, and her desire to become a wrestling fan.
You can listen to the podcast below or on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify and Google Play.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Ozzy Osbourne turns 71 years old today. Ozzy trying to work a remote control in a Season 1 episode of The Osbournes is one of the great moments in TV history.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram