ESPN’s Monday Night Football is enjoying a nice start to the 2021 season, and their “Ego-free” broadcast team is fitting in nicely as the group gets comfortable in year two.
The Big Lead went in-depth with play-by-play man Steve Levy on why the three-man booth of Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick is working so well. For Levy, it’s been a process of making sure he doesn’t only pursue perfection.
“What I took away from the first season is I was trying to be first on everything. Like, as soon as it went into the receiver’s hands, I was trying to have that name correct and the yard line correct and the yardage correct on every single play,” Levy said to The Big Lead. “And quite frankly, I watched a lot of the other top broadcasters, and on a two-yard gain, they’re never giving you that. They just don’t. And so I was making myself nuts.”
Levy noted that the path that led him, Griese, and Riddick to don these headsets also helped them cultivate “ego-free” personalities on the air.
“Last season, we just wanted to sort of steady the ship, right? The Monday Night Football franchise, there’s been so much talk about the booth and I never understood that. I mean, it’s about the game, what’s going on. That was our first collective goal,” Levy told The Big Lead. “In-house we discussed, ‘Okay, let’s get the attention off of us. Let’s get it on the game where it belongs.’ I felt like we did that. Now the next piece of that is, let’s go be great at it.”
That team-first mentality is a big reason why we haven’t heard much fuss out of Levy, Griese, or Riddick over the addition of Peyton and Eli Manning as viewing options.
“I mean, it’s Peyton and Eli Manning. I get it. You want to talk about star-studded careers, all-time greats, one Hall of Famer and one future Hall of Famer, I’m not surprised,” he said. “Everything the Mannings touch turns to gold. We sort of knew this was coming, and I’ve always been considered a company man and a team guy, and I feel pretty lucky to be on their team. We’re all part of the ESPN family, you know? The ratings are really good collectively from Monday Night Football overall. That’s good for everyone concerned.”
Check out the complete profile of Levy and Monday Night Football right here.