Jason Witten and MNF Update
Justacommeman
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Does anyone else feel badly for him like I do? He was thrust into this role with zero experience and it shows. He has to be embarrassed. I know I’m emabrrassed for him. It’s cringe worthy listenening to him. It doesn’t help the play by play guy is horrible as well.
FWIW I’m watching thr Browns- Denver game. Mike Tirico and Kurt Warner are calling the game. Warner is fantastic as the color guy. What a pleasure listening to him. He is clear, concise and can put sentences together.
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
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I think it was eric dickerson about 30 years ago that made me feel the same way
Witten is pretty bad. I like Mcfarland but the guys in the booth are borderline torture.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
He is much better than the yaho before him. Forget his name. He was with Gruden who I also like. I like past players or coaches who actually know the game.
No, Witten is worse.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Witten is the color guy. The same role as Gruden. You are thinking of the play by play guy. Witten in his current role is brutal. It’s a shame.
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I hadn't noticed. I guess I go by knowledge and facts more than grammer.
Honestly Nobody is forcing him to carry on, the guy had a HOF career and is stuffed with money, he could walk away anytime if he feels uncomfortable or goback to the Cowboys if he wants to work, Garrett begged him to come back
Indeed but he’s not the type of guy who would quit during the year. There is no way they can bring him back nor should he want to.
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Witten has struggled but McFarland is one of the worst I've ever heard. I can't fathom how he ever got past an audition.
I like Mcfarland because he at least voices an opinion instead of recycling the same old platitudes and avoiding criticism. He's the best of the 3 by far, imo, though the bar is pretty low in the first place. All the play by play guy is missing is a pair of pom poms with all the gushing and cheeerleading he does To say that Witten has struggled is an understatement.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
When Witten is speaking I almost expect Mike Pireo to tell him he has to go into the booth tent to see if he Is concussed
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
it's painful. every time there's a shot in the booth, he looks as uncomfortable as he sounds. sometimes he's staring at Tessitore like a minion as if to say, "i'm trying so hard for you to like me."
i have yet to warm up to the entire MNF crew collectively, but generally if there's any honest analysis, it comes from Booger. why he is perched high atop the sideline like he's some pharoah is something i'll never understand. here's a novel idea: how about sticking him in the booth with Ren & Stimpy and allowing those guys to work together in close proximity?
me alegra que hayas vuelto Justa
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Hell...I may have to tune in.
Gruden was the best on MNF because he knew the game and what was going on. Romo is also very good for the same reason.
Two that come to mind about not knowing beans from applebutter is Macfarland and Ian Eagle.
I always thought he was an Indian chief , like the dude that cries when he sees litter on the side of the highway
McFarland was pretty good as a recurring guest on Mike and Mike back in the day, but I don’t like his current MNF work at all. And Witten is horrendous.
It’s nice to be back. Thank you!
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Been paying special attention to Witten tonite. I don't see a problem at all. As a matter of fact I like the whole MNF crew better that a lot of the recent ones.
Looks like most of us will have to suffer another year of this horrible product. At least they plan on making Witten practice a lot in the off season. To Wittens credit he knows he’s been bad but he owns it at least.
After calling the Week 15 matchup between the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers for ESPN, the "Monday Night Football" crew will have three more telecasts this season, including in Week 16, a playoff game and the Pro Bowl. But Jason Witten, Booger McFarland and Joe Tessitore will be back for the 2019 season, which could come to the chagrin of those who have criticized the trio during its first season calling games.
That would make for a very sizable group, considering that seemingly all comments offered about the MNF team's work have been negative, particularly in the case of Witten, a former Dallas Cowboys tight end who this year jumped directly to one of the most high-profile gigs in sports broadcasting.
According to a report by The Athletic, published Monday, before Carolina hosted New Orleans, ESPN has made a "commitment ... to this three-man booth, not just for the rest of 2018, but into the future." The website's Lindsay Jones added, "Like it or not NFL fans, you should expect to see and hear this trio next season."
Suffice it to say that Witten's first season as a TV analyst has not been received as favorably as that of his former teammate Tony Romo, who went from Cowboys quarterback to CBS' top announcing team last year. While Romo gained immediate notice for an uncanny ability to predict plays that teams were about to run, Witten has caught flak for misdiagnosing replays, as well as for being too bland in his commentary and failing to explain inside-football jargon.
The 11-time Pro Bowler also has been criticized for malapropisms or odd turns of phrase, such as saying in September of the NFL's change to roughing-the-passer penalties, "It seems like we went a little bit to the left wing." In November, Witten was mocked for exclaiming that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers "pulled a rabbit out of his head."
Tessitore, a veteran college football play-by-play announcer, has rubbed some viewers the wrong way with what they've seen as his lack of understanding of when to dial it back. McFarland has seemed to generate less criticism, but his positioning out of the booth and on a sideline riser has struck some as unnecessarily awkward, and his on-air chemistry with co-analyst Witten has been a work in progress.
"What makes a three-man booth challenging is everybody's got to give up a little something. Right?" McFarland said to The Athletic's Jones. "Because normally you'd have one guy being the analyst and he's got the ability to go at his own pace and do everything and break down everything, but when you've got two people somebody's got to give up a little something."
Witten told Jones that he was pleased with a disagreement he had with McFarland during last week's Vikings-Seahawks game about whether Minnesota did the right thing in going for it on a late fourth-and-goal play rather than trying a field goal. "That was really the first game when Booger and I had differences of opinion that were that strong. I thought that allowed for good television and it happened organically that way," he said.
ESPN's vice president of production, Lee Fitting, told Jones that his main regret was not putting Witten, once the ex-player committed to his career change, in front of cameras as often as possible before his MNF debut.
"We have NFL talk and NFL shows everywhere, it wouldn't have been that difficult. We were so focused on the game coverage and prepping for the game and how to broadcast a game," Fitting said. He added of Witten: "Let him get comfortable talking to America. Let him get comfortable talking to the camera, and talking to others. That's something that I personally whiffed on and hold myself accountable for and wish we did more of that."
In a better-late-than-never move, per Jones, ESPN plans on giving Witten plenty of reps during the NFL's offseason, in the form of TV and radio hits. In numerous interviews this season, Witten has made it clear that he's well aware of the criticism hurled his way — "I've made mistakes. You try to own it. You embrace it," he said last month — but he told The Athletic that he won't "allow noise to get in the way" of his goals.
McFarland said that not only was the MNF crew, including sideline reporter Lisa Salters, coming back in 2019, but that everyone was slated for the same roles, including his as an outside-the-booth voice. "Might we tweak something as far as technology? I don't know," he said. "That's something we'll take a look at when the season's over.
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I think it's been better tonight. Not nearly as bad as that redskins-eagles game. They were unbearable to listen to that night.
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I think I stated before that I didn't like McFarland. I mistook him for the yoyo that was with Gruden last year. Couldn't stand him. I think Witten knows the game as well as any in the booth...….after all he is the GOAT at TE.
Such a far cry from Cosell-Gifford-Meredith. I think only Dennis Miller was worse than Witten.
You might be right. I’m in China watching. The Chinese Witten in the booth makes more sense then the OG
Maybe. Just maybe
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I lean more toward dimeman than the rest of you. I think you're far too critical of Whitten.
He's not that bad, its just that he makes a few mistakes and everyone piles on.
Give him time, just like a rookie QB. I think Romo being very good right away had a negative impact,
because no matter how Whitten did people would say, oh, he's not as good as Romo.
But he's not the GOAT tight end, that would still be Tony Gonzalez, unless Travis Kelce can
keep up his pace for several more years. Gronk couldn't do it long enough to be in consideration,
as his career is in freefall at this point.
Zack Ertz might just be the best ever when it’s all said and done
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
They all have a loooong way to go to get up with Witten and TG. Long way.
Well Wittens single season record was just eclipsed by Ertz today. No doubt Witten was a top ten TE all time. He was terrific
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Mark....Witten is a close 2nd only behind TG. No one is close to either of them.
Antonio Gates wasn't too shabby, either.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Gates was good, but behind Witten.
Remember this Cowboy TE, DM? LOL..
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
No way Jose. Not even close. Almost every 10 TE list has Gates, TG, Sharpe ahead of Witten. Witten usually falls between #4 and #8.
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
He talks like he fell down ....a lot Whoa!
I'm going by number of catches and yards...….not some talking head list. Plus he was a very very good blocker. I don't know what those idiots are using that put Witten at 4.
Yes, I remember BJD and also Cosby. Both were very good, but Whitten was better.
Well he is leaving the booth and heading back to the Cowboys to play another season
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
ESPN must be happy about that.
Jon should be, too, lol.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Finally, a distraction from Kraft's handies.
While he was one of the best TE's ever...…..only Tony G was better...……...I have reservations about this comeback.
Can he still play at his previous level being 37 and not playing last year???????
He's definitely better than any active TE on the roster right now.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I just hope he can still run the good routes and get open like he use to do
he is unhappy with his career concussions number hes looking for 2 more
I’m predicting he will have a better season on the field next year than he would have had in the booth
I hope he can remember how to run them
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I predict a good year for him.