View from the Bleachers: Is Monday Night Football still special?

I know it's early. I know it's preseason. But I just don't think Monday Night Football is going to seem like Monday Night Football anymore.

Even when the regular season gets under way, I wonder if MNF will still have the excitement it used to have. It was once a significant part of American culture -- not just sports culture, but our culture in general. Then it evolved into just another night and just another game.

How will ESPN handle its responsibility to MNF's legacy? Time will tell. (Getty Images)

Now it has sunken even lower as it's on ESPN instead of ABC. That's right. It's on cable TV! What are they going to do next? Start sending it out on a Web cast that only Mac users can get?

Is today's generation going to rush home from work to watch Monday Night Football as previous ones did? I don't think so.

As far as the three new commentators go, I know that if there is any chemistry there, it's going to take a while for it to develop. But I'm not that optimistic.

Like him or hate him, when Monday Night Football lost John Madden to NBC, it lost a bigger-than-life presence. And that's what has often worked, whether it was Howard Cosell, Don Meredith or even Joe Namath. The show needs a guy that people can laugh with, laugh at, cheer for and get mad at. It needs somebody who says ridiculous things in his own special way. It needs somebody who will have legions of his own fans and detractors. It needs somebody whom comics will imitate. Tony Kornheiser isn't that guy. And neither is Joe Theismann.

Kornheiser is a wonderful columnist, and he has a fun show and great chemistry with Michael Wilbon on Pardon The Interruption. Like Madden, he's not comfortable flying. But I'm not sure what else about him is like Madden.

Theismann often talks too much. Three men in the booth is usually one too many, but I guess they figured they needed at least one color guy who knew about football. Here's hoping he learns when to talk and when not to.

Mike Tirico seems adequate, but he's no Al Michaels.

But the lack of a brilliant play-by-play guy and an exciting/controversial color guy in the booth are not the only reasons why Monday Night Football doesn't feel special anymore. To me, it's because so many NFL games are televised. There's Sunday Night Football, sometimes there's Thursday Night Football, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've been sneaking in a Tuesday Afternoon Football game that I haven't known about.

With so many games on, and with the networks hyping each one as if it's the Game of The Century, is it any wonder that viewers have turned away from Monday Night Football? They figure -- quite correctly -- that if they miss the game on Monday night, they can see another one a few days later.

Dallas-Philly isn't even a MNF game. (Getty Images)

In the good old days, Monday Night Football wasn't just a football game. It was an event. There weren't any other games on that day -- not like Sunday -- and it was on prime-time network TV. Lately, they've tried to manufacture it as an event. They've had television and music stars who know nothing about football at the games. ABC tried a sexy commercial (incorporating one of its own shows, of course) with Terrell Owens. That's not how you make it a big event. You make it a big event by bringing us a good game with a good story, with good commentators.

So, what would be a big story and big game that football fans want to see this year? Owens' Dallas Cowboys playing against the Philadelphia Eagles, who got rid of T.O. last year, has to rank up there among games that would draw fan interest. So, do these teams meet on Monday Night Football? Well, not exactly. They meet on Monday, Dec. 25. But not at night. At 4 p.m. ET. And not on ESPN, but on NBC. They also play against each other earlier in the season -- on Fox. (I guess the only saving grace for ESPN's Monday Night Football is that T.O. might not still be playing for Dallas by the time these games are televised).

So, what do I think the future of Monday Night Football will be? The same as the future of all those other football nights. It's all going to depend on who's playing and if you have something better to do. It's no longer going to be an American ritual that millions are going to feel a need to participate in.

That is, unless somehow ESPN finds a way to rejuvenate it.

So, let me give these words of wisdom to ESPN. You've become the trustee of something that has been very special in American sports. So don't blow it by treating it like just another one of those "sports" you're so successful at bringing us like Strongman competitions, poker tournaments and women's billiards. That's not what we want to see on Monday nights. To paraphrase the MNF signature line, "We're ready for some football!"