A new season of Monday Night Football kicks off this week, and the main ESPN broadcast crew is ready to carry momentum into their second year together.
ESPN’s Steve Levy, Louis Riddick, and Brian Griese, fielded questions on a media conference call about their upcoming season, things they can work on to make the best possible broadcast, and much more.
The crew answered questions about the good and bad from their performance in 2020.
“What worked? I think, first of all, we did have the benefit of having the Monday Night Football game even prior to last season,” Levy said on the conference call. “That second game of the double-header. That allowed us to get a feel. Obviously, Griese and I have done four years of college together, and Louis and I had done a lot of SportsCenter stuff both in Bristol and on the road, SportsCenter at the Super Bowl, but actually getting a game under our belt, that first game, the last home opener in Oakland for the Raiders, I think that really helped get us going and helped us understand what this booth could be like.”
Griese piggybacked off of the answer and revealed that the crew met in the offseason to assess their performance and highlight places to get better in 2021.
“You know,” Griese began. “We’re not under any false pretenses in understanding there’s three voices up there, and that’s different. I think one of the things that we took away, and I know that I took away from a year ago in watching those tapes is we can talk less but say more.
“That’s not an easy thing to do,” Griese continued. “I think with three people up there, nobody wants to hear wall-to-wall talking, especially now that fans are going to be back in the stands, and we’re going to want to capture that emotion from the fans after a big play or after a touchdown.”
Riddick expanded on the “less is more” mantra and admitted the crew needs to be more conversational at times.
“What we’re going to get better at I think is just being more conversational and hearing us play off of one another and really talking the game through,” Riddick answered. “Whether that be in the open or as the game is happening coming out of halftime. I think you’ll see that it will be something that you’ll enjoy listening to, and it’ll be very informative, it’ll be educational, and we want to entertain people along the way, and I think we’re very much so dead set on making sure that happens.”
ESPN is offering more options than ever for fans with ESPN and ESPN+ to watch Monday Night Football. Yet, the main crew still has the most eyes tracking their analysis of all the action.
