<< 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 >>

Michaels shines as Monday Night Football changes

By Richard Sandomir
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 30 -- Al Michaels entered the restaurant as the Sunday afternoon games were starting. A half-dozen fans at the bar turned, almost in unison, as they heard his unmistakable voice and then saw Michaels, the 61-year-old "Monday Night Football" announcer, in a T-shirt and sweat pants.

Waving good-bye to ABC? Suspended wide receiver Terrell Owens is one of the many issues Madden and Michaels covered during a recent Eagles broadcast. Michaels' professionalism is revealed by his willingness to mention Owens, but not to let him overshadow the game of the week. (AP Photo/Bradley C. Bower)

This was on the eve of the Nov. 14 Dallas-Philadelphia game, the second for the Eagles since Terrell Owens had been suspended and the 549th Monday in the history of the series. The total would not have mattered if this were not the 36th and final season for "Monday Night" on ABC. The series moves to ESPN next year.

Michaels will make the leap to ESPN, but on this day he recalled being hired for "Monday Night" by Dennis Swanson, who replaced Roone Arledge as president of ABC Sports in 1986. The job, however prestigious, looked to be a lame-duck assignment for Michaels, who at the time was ABC's lead baseball announcer. But ABC was in the final year of its "Monday Night" deal, and there was concern that the parsimonious Capital Cities, which had acquired the free-spending network a year earlier, would not renew it.

But Capital Cities paid to keep it, as has its acquirer, the Walt Disney Company. Although the buzz about "Monday Night Football" as a cultural phenomenon is nowhere what it was in the three-network universe of the 1970's, it is a perennial top-10 prime-time program. But it became a money-loser for ABC, so it is headed to ESPN.

"People think I'm putting on a good face, but I love it," said Michaels, who insisted that the words "Monday Night Football" still tingle his spine and that he was not being hyperbolic about his devotion to the series.

Now the series is about to undergo its most fundamental change yet, and that is as wrenching for those who have worked on "Monday Night Football" as it is for the image of ABC Sports, once the dominant force in television sports. John Madden, Michaels's partner since 2002, will move to NBC next year to call Sunday night games, and ESPN is inheriting a "Monday Night" franchise without any postseason games, shrinking the series further into ESPN's vast and expanding web.

Tommy O'Connell has been a "Monday Night" cameraman for 30 years and has heard Michaels announce the birth of his three children. The series was "the stable part of my year," he said. "I'd do the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500 and 'Wide World of Sports.' " Now, only the Indianapolis 500 remains on ABC.

The weekly "Monday Night" routine remains as it has for years, including the production meeting that starts nearly 12 hours before game time. Here, storylines are debated, dozens of graphics are reviewed (few will actually make it onto the air) and the timing of the pregame and halftime segments are completed. The view from inside the room provided a rare glimpse of how each show comes together and unfolds.

On this particular Monday, 15 people sat around a conference-room table at a luxury hotel and watched the elaborate pregame tease, featuring the hyperkinetic actor James Woods on a soundstage, mocking the endless news-media flap about the Owens suspension as "the T. O. thing." The segment aptly teased the meeting's primary theme: What and how much should be said on the telecast about Owens?

"We've been talking about the Owens thing since Week 1," Michaels said. "Everyone says it's not a distraction, but how important has it been to Philadelphia?"

Across the table, Madden, in a baseball cap and untucked red shirt, said: "He's their No. 1 playmaker. Take a beat-up quarterback without a running game. Take away the No. 1 playmaker, and there's no way they're close to the same team."

Madden jotted notes on a yellow pad, which he disposed of before entering the booth.

Fred Gaudelli, who took over as producer in 2001, guided the conversation to the Cowboys' strengths, then returned to the soap opera surrounding Owens.

"At some point," Gaudelli said, "we'll talk about the arbitration hearing on Friday, but anything else has to come out naturally."

Michaels added, "There's no reason to jam any Owens things in unless something happens." But the actions that earned Owens's suspension had to be established, he said.

"We have to weave Owens in without overdoing it," he said.

Then Michaels asked Madden: "John, what about how other coaches in the league would handle this? Andy Reid gave him a lot of rope."

Madden replied: "Yeah, it goes to whether you'd take him in the first place. Tony Dungy said he wouldn't have taken him in the first place."

Michaels said, "Does Bill Parcells take T. O.?"

Madden said, "I think he told us no last night."

They moved from the Owens saga to Parcells's comfort with players who had played for him elsewhere to how they would discuss the sports hernia injury to Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb to the stories being suggested by Sam Ryan, who was filling in as the sideline reporter for Michele Tafoya, sidelined herself by pregnancy.

That evening, despite all the planning, as Madden often says, a game broke out. McNabb was surprisingly mobile despite his injury. The Eagles, particularly Brian Westbrook, ran the ball well, contrary to Madden's opinion during the production meeting. Late in the second quarter, McNabb ran 2 yards for a touchdown, putting the Eagles ahead, 13-7.

In the controlled frenzy of ABC's production truck, Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff, the director, sat at a console packed with small screens that form an almost abstract view of the field, and a wall displaying 15 replays; they called out their orders to cameramen and videotape operators.

"Let him dance, don't miss it!" Gaudelli said of McNabb.

"Take 5," Esocoff said, launching into a skein of requests for shots from various cameras. "Take 11. Take 2. Take 3. Eleven, 15, 18. Four, take 4. Eleven, go to his mom. Give me McNabb's mother."

"Graphics," Gaudelli said. "What's McNabb's mother's name?"

"Roll 82," Gaudelli said, who then asked: "Who has the McNabb dance?

"Ninety-two has it," Esocoff said.

"Roll 92," Gaudelli said.

"Good job, guys," Esocoff said. "Very nice segment."

Later, in the fourth quarter, Madden shouted excitedly, "Hey, did you hear someone on defense yell, 'Shovel, shovel?' "

The play was a short shovel pass from McNabb to Westbrook that was quickly stuffed. No one else in the booth or truck heard it, but during the subsequent Eagles field goal and a commercial break, the audio was found on a replay from Skycam, the camera that crisscrossed the top of Lincoln Financial Field on superstrong ropes. It had picked up Dat Nguyen, a Dallas linebacker, warning the Cowboys' defense, "Watch the shovel!"

Madden listened intently while ABC was in the commercial break, and when he recognized Nguyen's words, shouted, "Hear that!"

Several minutes later, the replay rolled, and the sound was clear.

The game moved to a surprise ending: McNabb was injured and the Cowboys won, 21-20, on two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter. Soon, several ABC staffers crammed into a van heading back to their hotel while Madden boarded his customized bus for the ride to his New York apartment.

Steve Nagler, an associate producer who spent the night discussing story ideas with Ryan, picked up his ringing cellphone. It was Madden. The two have developed a close, jocular rapport. Madden calls him Hesh. Some late nights, when it's too late to call his friends on the East Coast, Madden calls Nagler at his home near San Diego.

"So, what are you eating?" Nagler said.

Madden told him a Stubbs sandwich, a concoction perilously high in cholesterol that is made of sausage, scrambled eggs, cheese and bacon on toast.

"Where are you?" Nagler said.

Madden was rolling north along I-95.

"We're stuck in traffic," Nagler replied. They chatted for a few more minutes, until Nagler said, "O.K., talk to you later."

An hour later, Madden called again, requesting that Nagler buy a bottle of Champagne for Michaels, who was belatedly celebrating his 61st birthday at the hotel with his wife, Linda, and members of the crew.

There would be only six more "Monday Nights" for ABC.

Story Produced by: Nick Weidenmiller

<< 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 >>