...When All is Said and Dunn

Well, the professional football season officially got under way Monday night. After a couple of pre-season games that really didn’t mean anything, the real deal started. My interest in football has definitely waned since the departure of the double R’s, the Raiders and the Rams. Although it has given me more teams to root for, I root for anyone who is playing them, it’s still not the same. Los Angeles definitely needs a professional football team.

Los Angeles needs a team almost as much as ABC’s Monday Night Football commentators’ booth needed an infusion of fresh blood to bring it to life. For years now listening to the commentary and bland banter made me, on more than one occasion, turn down the sound or just stop watching the show altogether. Since Los Angeles doesn’t have a team I have no vested interest in the game, unless I’m involved in an office pool. That always helps to increase the interest level.

Then last year things seemed to really bottom out. The combination in the announcers’ booth was so mind numbingly dull it had to go down in my record book as the most least watched season in this house ever. I could not put my finger on what made it that way, it just was. It was as though they thought the way to announce a football game was to dumb it down and that football fans didn’t have the smarts to appreciate a verbal exchange.

They seemed to forget that there are a lot of football fans that don’t like to crush beer cans against their heads, paint their face and bodies in purple and gold, or wear big blocks of cheese on their heads. We just like to watch football, have a little informative banter, and if at all possible, some humor mixed in. That sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Well apparently it was a lot more difficult than it looked because they never could get the mix right. That was until now.

In an unusually intelligent move on the part of the executives at ABC, a group not known for smart decisions, somehow persuaded five-time Emmy winner and comedian extraordinaire, Dennis Miller, to join the party in the booth. Monday marked his third outing with the group, after a couple of pre-season games, and he has really hit the mark. Like a cold drink on a hot day, he is completely refreshing.

I was waiting until the season got underway until I said anything about his performance because he was entering uncharted waters. I mean, hell everybody is cut a little slack when they start a new job, that’s only fair. Even the most abusive jerk of a boss allows you that.

As soon as I heard the choice of the suits at ABC I knew he was the perfect choice. Granted, the people on their short list were absolutely awful and in some of the more high profile choices, cartoonish. Let’s see who would I rather look and listen to while watching a football game? Someone who is an overweight, abusive, abrasive, radio talk show bully or a 5 time Emmy winner, 3 time best selling author and a comedian who has made me laugh for 18 years.

Would it be someone who has made his entire career out of attacking one political party or someone known for pointing out the foibles of both and doing it with humor? Hmm, give me just a second to decide.
There are people out there who don’t think Dennis Miller is funny. I have found that they are usually the people who his jokes are generally so far beyond their comprehension that it not only goes over their heads it’s over their heads by miles.

The intellectual humor that is usually on display in his HBO specials, Saturday Night Live, or Dennis Miller Live is not what he’s doing on Monday Night Football. He is way too smart for that. He has kept his quick wit and sharp sure-fire delivery and he has kept it accessible even to the average Joe.

If you missed the game and you have a computer, you can get examples by logging on to http://abcsports.go.com/ and click on Miller Moments. See and hear for yourself. If it’s not your cup of tea oh, well. Everyone didn’t find Bob Hope funny either.

All I can tell you is that for the first time since I started watching Monday Night Football, I have heard real honest laughter come from the commentators’ booth. Not the forced courtesy laughs that usually follow the past lame attempts at humor.

And that my friends, in itself, is worth the price of admission.