ESPN again pursued Peyton Manning for a spot on its Monday Night Football broadcast team after Jason Witten decided to leave TV to return to the Dallas Cowboys, and Manning again said thanks but no thanks. ESPN has decided to stand pat with what it has in 2019.
Play-by-play man Joe Tessitore will be joined in the booth by Booger McFarland, who served as a sideline analyst last year atop the infamous Booger Mobile. There will be no third analyst this season.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand that there was no need to add a second analyst to the team because “we’re confident in our booth.”
Marchand isn’t exactly buying the explanation. He notes that even though Manning said no to MNF, he still is a relationship with the network. He hosted a football-centric addition of Detail for the streaming service in 2018 and in 2019 will be at the center of Peyton’s Places, a travel show exploring the history of the NFL. Those projects could keep Peyton happy until he is ready to make the move to game analyst.
Also hanging over the entire broadcast industry is Tony Romo’s looming free agency. The former Cowboys QB has become a star in just two seasons at CBS and 2019 is the final year on his rookie contract.
Romo is asking for $10 million per year in his next deal. If CBS doesn’t give it to him and Romo hits the open market, there will be no shortage of suitors and ESPN is no stranger to handing out large sums of money for marquee talent.
For this season, Pitaro says he is content with Tessitore and McFarland, but if ESPN and ABC want to get into the Super Bowl rotation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the company try to make a splash hire for the Monday Night booth in 2020.