Monday Night Football Vs. Sunday Night Football

Is Sunday Night Football going to become what Monday Night Football once was? With Monday Night Football switching to ESPN this fall, it will have a new network, new announcers, and probably less viewers because it will be on cable. Sunday Night Football is moving from ESPN to NBC, bringing former Monday Night Football announcers Al Michaels and John Madden along for the ride. The long-standing tradition of Monday Night Football will face a big test this fall. Let's look at what is in store for both Sunday Night Football on NBC and Monday Night Football on ESPN.

Sunday Night Football has a few big advantages over Monday Night Football. First, it will be on network TV, so it will be accessible to many more viewers. Another big advantage is that John Madden and Al Michaels will announce the games. Madden and Michaels are like old friends to millions of NFL fans. They were almost as important to Monday Night Football as the game itself. With their switch to Sunday Night Football, Madden and Michaels bring instant credibility and familiarity to the NBC broadcast. In addition, Sunday Night Football will benefit from the NFL's new flexible scheduling system. For the second half of the NFL season, Sunday Night Football games will not be predetermined. This way, only prime time matchups between playoff contenders will air. There will be no more boring matchups between cellar dwellers, like there used to be on Monday Night Football.

Along with Al Michaels and John Madden, Andrea Kremer will be reporting from the sidelines for NBC. Sunday Night Football's halftime show features Bob Costas, who will be joined by former NFL players Cris Collinsworth, Jerome Bettis, and Sterling Sharpe. With an all-star cast, the halftime show should be an entertaining and informative segment that will be worth watching.

As for Monday Night Football, ESPN's booth announcers will be Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann, and Tony Kornheiser. Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber will be reporting from the sidelines. As of now, Monday Night Football will not benefit from flexible scheduling, but ESPN hopes to negotiate this in the future. With Monday Night Football on ESPN, only cable and satellite subscribers will have access to television coverage of the games. However, the games will still be available on network TV for the local markets. For instance, if Green Bay is playing Chicago on Monday Night Football, Chicago and Green Bay will be the only places that can watch the games on network television. Everywhere else in the country, the game will only air on ESPN. This should result in fewer viewers for Monday Night Football. However, most serious NFL fans subscribe to ESPN already, will start subscribing to it, or will go to a friend's house or sports bar to watch the game.

In general, I think the new network changes will be a win-win situation for NFL fans. Sunday Night Football will become a much bigger event than it was previously. Monday Night Football will be backed by ESPN, the premier sports network that has a history of quality sports programming. NFL fans will now have two marquis football events each week, instead of just one. The battle between the networks only benefits sports fans in the end. However, when the playoffs are on the line in December, I think flexible scheduling will make Sunday Night Football the biggest game in town. Are you ready for some football?