NFL News: Jaworski Replacing Theismann in MNF Booth

Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber will continue as sideline reporters.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

NEW YORK - Story courtesy: ESPN.com news services

There will be a quarterback change in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth for the 2007 season.

Ron Jaworski will join Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser on the ESPN telecast.

Jaworski replaces Joe Theismann, who has been offered a prominent football analyst job with the network.

"We appreciate the work Joe has done for 19 years and continue to talk with him about another high-profile football role with ESPN," said Norby Williamson, ESPN's executive vice president for studio and remote production.

Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber will continue as sideline reporters.

Williamson said chemistry was not the reason for the change.

"I thought Joe and Tony got along very well, and I thought the dialogue was good and was conversational," he said. "I think we're going to build on last year. We had a fantastic first year. I was happy with the booth and I think we're in a position now of continuing to move it forward and to build on it."

Jaworski, who played 17 years in the NFL, most notably as quarterback of the Eagles, joined ESPN in 1990. He has been a prominent NFL analyst for the network and his studio duties will now be spread among ESPN's other NFL analysts, including newcomers Emmitt Smith and Bill Parcells.

"I'm an 'Xs-and-Os' guy. I love breaking down the game. I love the strategy of the game," Jaworski said in a conference call. "That's the beauty of what I will bring to the table is that insight of 'Xs and Os.'"

Jaworski, who regularly appears on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, hosted by Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, said he has been friends with Kornheiser for over a decade.

"It's been a wonderful [relationship] thus far, but certainly now the stage is bigger and brighter," Jaworski said. "I think our role, people will see how well we do get along."

Theismann, a storied quarterback in Redskins history, was the NFL's MVP in 1983 and led Washington to victory in Super Bowl XVII.

Last season, ESPN's coverage of Monday Night Football was the most-watched series in the history of cable television and the only NFL series nominated for a 2007 Sports Emmy in the Outstanding Live Sports Series category.

Nine of the top 10 on the list of cable television's biggest household audiences ever came from ESPN's coverage of Monday Night Football in 2006, including the Giants-Cowboys game on Oct. 23, 2006, which ranks No. 1 all-time with a 12.8 rating.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

It is hard to believe that ESPN will keep Tony Kornheiser. His level of obnoxious is out of the park and his nonstop yap and babble is enough to do the strongest stomach in. He is the single reason we watched MNF last season with the sound off. Dumping the stupid and arrogant Theismann is a good start. That said, we'd take him any day over Kornheiser who looks like a freakish and shabby John McInroe and sounds like a level of awful without a peer. Even though Theismann needed to go, he was a star compared to yap and babble Kornheiser. I could provide pages of names of people who feel exactly as we do. We've even written to sponsors because we feel as though ESPN is stuffing Kornheiser down our throats as some kind of bad joke and the sponsors are paying the bill. MNF was once a hallowed tradition here. No longer. Sunday night has replaced MNF on our "must watch" list. We're serious football fans and will likely continue to watch with the sound off. Tiriko is the only guy worth keeping.

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