Tony Goes to the NFL

Ever since I started going to work a bit earlier, I've missed the Tony Kornheiser show. Now he's gone off the air, as he preps to to do Monday Night Football.

Kornheiser's the first guy since Dennis Miller to host Monday Night Football who's not an athlete, in particular, an ex-football player. He had tried out at the time Miller did, though obviously, they picked Miller over Mr. Tony.

That was a dismal failure. Miller's brand of humor flew over the head of most listeners, as his references went all over the place, often far outside football. When he decided to sprinkle his erudite jokes with football analysis, fans again cringed, wanting the analysis to come from football experts.

This isn't your father's MNF, however. ABC, which had hosted MNF since its inception thought they would do better with a swap with ESPN, to do Sunday Night Football. Thus, MNF is now hosted on ESPN.

Kornheiser will share the booth with Joe Theismann. Although Theismann was best known as a Redskins, he's often been highly critical of the team. When Theismann was on the radio program, although he tried hard to sound sincere, it just sounded like he didn't care for Tony being his co-host. To Tony's credit, he sounded genuine in his interest to be alongside Joe.

Tony, for his part, has been self-deprecating, pointing out how he can't stay up past 10 (which normally he doesn't) and how he is going to be so awful that he'll quit within a year or be fired.

He claims he'll come back to radio once MNF finishes off, because he loves radio. Although Tony has always said he prefers writing over radio, he's always been far better on radio than in the written word. His rants are that much better when it bounces off others, where it be his co-hosts or frequent guest John "Junior" Feinstein.

These days, they've decided to move the "Sports Reporters" to the morning realizing Andy Pollin's still not ready to handle a show on his own, and generate his own entertainment. Stern appears to have disappeared.

Why is that great radio guys in DC, like Kornheiser and Derek McGinty, decide they need to off and do something else?

I can't figure it out.