A rebuttal to "ESPN blows the call with Joe Theismann"

Monday, ESPN announced that Joe Theismann would be replaced by Ron Jaworski as color analyst for the storied Monday Night Football Franchise. I received this news with great joy and am dumbfounded by Mr. Berr's stalwart support for Mr. Theismann.

Among football fans, the early season, one-time pairing of Dick Vermeil and Jaworski was seen as the best broadcast of an NFL game in all of last year. Meanwhile, Theismann was the final remaining link in the chain from the horrid Maguire-Patrick-Theismann team from Sunday Night Football on ESPN. While Theismann was admittedly the best of those three, it's not saying much when the group was known as the "worst big-time crew in the history of sports broadcasting." Theismann's occasional useful insights are overshadowed by his tendency to contradict himself, usually within the span of only a few minutes.

Tony Kornheiser exists on the broadcast to keep casual viewers entertained with silly anecdotes about his fantasy team. The man knows his role and he hammed it up a little last year. Theismann took every word from Kornheiser seriously, which caused some trouble in the booth when Tony was obviously being facetious.

While I personally don't need silly antics to watch a game, I understand the network's decision to attempt to broaden their audience. In previous years, the big-wigs in charge decided that hardcore fans would watch no matter the noise emitted from the broadcast booth. However, when viewers like myself started to tune out, action needed to be taken. Enter Ron Jaworksi.

Kornheiser and Jaworski actually have pretty good chemistry as demonstrated by Jaws' weekly appearances on Kornheiser's TV gab-fest Pardon the Interruption. Jaworski is the perfect foil for Kornheiser. Jaworski is a long-time favorite of fans who enjoy to hear why a certain play worked so well, not just the meat and potatoes description from the play by play announcer coupled with Korheiser's non sequiturs. I expect Jaws to highlight which blocks sprung runners for big gains and which defensive back blew the coverage allowing an easy score. Combine this with Jaworski's ability to understand when Kornheiser is just joking and this move should keep hardcore football fans from switching off the TV on Monday night due to blood running out of their ears.

Personally, this move makes me wish that football season were right around the corner. In my opinion, maybe this year The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) will make Monday Night Football (as last year's ad campaign claimed) "something worth waiting for."

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. (Free Subscription)

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about.