Should MNF be a doubleheader?

I'll be watching the first game of the twinbill for sure tonight, but do you think Monday Night Football should have a doubleheader today?

 

Don't really have an opinion on whether they should have a doubleheader, but I DO know that I wish the Nessler-Jaws-Vermeil team doing the late game was the broadcast crew every Monday night instead of what we're getting.

 

I think the NFL kind of has to do that for ESPN (and parent ABC) because it gives NBC two games on the first weekend. It probably promotes the NFL a little better.

Now, whether that's fair to the extra set of teams involved, that's a good question. But that isn't the reason these decisions are made.

 

It does seem like a little overkill...and there are some East Coast sports editors who are getting ulcers about the deal....but a once-in-a-season doubleheader is probably OK.

 

Having a game start at 10:15 p.m. on the East Coast can't be great for ratings as opposed to the normal 9 p.m. start on normal MNF nights.

Gotta love TV and its stranglehold on sports scheduling ...

 

I'm OK w/ Nessler and Jaws, but Vermeil? Ughhh. I'll never forget when he was doing college football for ABC and he said that Ohio State coach John Cooper was 1-6 in bowl games 'through no fault of his own.'

 

The second game can't get over any later than any FOX LCS or World Series game...

 

Yes it will. There's a clock in football.

 

It's probably necessary because CBS has the US Open to deal with during Kickoff Weekend. Any of the three primetime games that were available for CBS (Miami-Pittsburgh, Oakland-San Diego and Indianpolis-New York) likely would have been 4:15 starts.

As long as it retains the US Open, CBS can't broadcast any West Coast games for Week 1. You can't always schedule around that, so giving ESPN an extra game doesn't hurt anybody -- except East Coast sportsdesks.

 

The pithy answer: Nope.