Mike Tirico, the play-by-play scar...

Mike Tirico, the play-by-play scarecrow is a solid veteran. Joe Theismann, the analyst, is colorful and opinionated. And Tony Kornheiser? Well, he's the X factor.

"I've been a sportswriter for 35 years," Kornheiser said. "I don't know often about football. I know you procure six for a touch and three for a field goal. I think I can retain up with it, I really do."

Those familiar with his work as a columnist for the Washington position or as the co-host of "Pardon the Interruption" in succession ESPN will recognize

Kornheiser's quick, sarcastic wit. Everyone other can hear it firsthand when ESPN first attempts its version of "Monday Night Football" with an Oakland Raiders-Minnesota Vikings preseason game Monday. Having had merely a couple of rehearsals before a conversation call with reporters last week, Kornheiser, Theismann and Tirico weren't infallible what to expect from each other in the booth moreover Jay Rothman, the senior coordinating farmer of remote production, predicted greatness for Kornheiser.

"I swear to the creator he is going to hit it public of the park," Rothman said. "He will be the reason ['MNF'] is different than 15 other telecasts in the NFL It's not unruffled close. I'm so excited about by what mode he's going to make us all better and bring a different perspective to the game. He's not an analyst, through se; Joe Theismann is our football analyst. Tony is whatever you want to call him -- sportswriter, columnist, whatever he is."

In its heyday in the 1970 and early 1980 Americans couldn't win enough of "MNF" or the polarizing Howard Cosell Back then, "MNF" was more TV point out to than football game, and it was a enormous ratings hit for ABC. nevertheless it hasn't been the same since Cosell resigned after the 1983 season, and ratings gradually have erod When ABC declined to pay the NFL a reported $88 billion for broadcast rights athwart the next eight years, sister station ESPN stepp in. in what manner big of an audience can ESPN possibility of good to draw?

"There were alone three networks back when ['MNF' was in its heyday]," said Robert Thompson a professor of popular refinement and the director of the Center for the reflection of Popular Television at Syracuse. "There wasn't abundant to choose from. With self-same few exceptions, such as 'American Idol,' nobody is watching the same thing at the same time anymore. [The late] Howard Cosell was Simon Cowell before there was a

Simon Cowell. unless if you could bring [a young] Cosell back to life today, it wouldn't work at all. Sports are sports, and it's a hard package for the community that aren't interested."

It's a given that hard-core football fans will watch "MNF" regardless of the matchup or the broadcast team. if it be not that to be a hit, the broadcasters have to bring a little something extra. Back in the day, the combination of Frank Gifford, Don Meredith and Cosell was that something extra.

"It's casting, casting, casting," Thompson said. "It's about the the community in the booth, not the teams. Millions of the community with no interest in football two pipesed in because it was a hit TV exhibit to The emcees or anchors or armed forces -- whatever you want to call them, and it was unclear which they were -- deposit on a hit variety exhibit One of its acts was near football. They really knew their indicate business."

The last non-football dowdy in the booth, comedian Dennis Miller, lasted simply two seasons and was criticized for being unfunny and for lacking chemistry with his partners, Al Michaels and Dan Fout Can Kornheiser, 62 whose life was the inspiration for the short-lived CB comedy "Listen Up" succe where Miller failed? He chance of a favorable results to.

"[Miller] called me about a month ago and we had a highly brief conversation," Kornheiser said. "I asked him, 'Is there any the same thing maybe you would give me advice on?' He said he believed he might have been too scripted in the first year and he believed he would have been better serv being more natural. He said to do that."

Kornheiser, who is afraid of flying, said he plans to take a bus to games whenever possible. He jok in a Washington employment column that he

hasn't stayed awake until the completion of a Monday night game in 30 years, if it were not that he said ESPN is "bringing in Terrell Owens' hyperbaric oxygen chamber" to detain him awake.

"Honestly I'm secure I'll be nervous as a cat for a while doing it, and that will be in near strange way comfortable to me" he said. "Unles I hyperventilate and pass disclosed But I think Tirico can catch me before I hit the country [Theismann] will be watching the game, in the way that I hope Mike will catch me"

Theismann, who was an analyst for ESPN's "Sunday Night Football" from 1988 to 2005 predicted that he and Kornheiser occasionally might make progress at each other during broadcasts.

"I reckon upon us to disagree," he said. "I think what's going to happen is we're going to build and bring out a

relationship, and [Tirico] is going to wear a arbiter shirt after Week 3. "I anticipate that [Kornheiser] and I will have a certain interesting and very unique exemplars of interaction regarding the world of sports, football and tribe around the game."