Nothing Gold Can Stay
Terrible news, America: The Peyton-Eli Manning Monday Night Football broadcast is off until Week Seven
In the span of less than a month, Peyton and Eli Manning have single handedly revolutionized Monday Night Football, and perhaps football broadcasting in general. As an alternative to ESPN’s traditional broadcast featuring Steve Levy, Brian Griese and Louis Riddick, the Worldwide Leader has aired a virtual hangout over on The Deuce, hosted by the Manning brothers and studded with stars, from Charles Barkley to Gronk and every affable loud mouth in between. The format and execution have been a hit, doubling viewership between weeks one and two of the season. We called it an “electric factory” and “the only way we should be watching football going forward” and we hate everything. That’s the good news. The bad news?
Manning-Cast is now off until Week 7.
Yep, as it turns out, the Mannings are currently contracted to call 10 Monday Night Football games per season for the next three seasons. That leaves 21 cold, barren, Manning-less weeks to suffer through, the first of which begins next Monday when the red-hot, undefeated LAS VEGAS RAIDERS head to La La Land to take on the Chargers in what is suddenly a monumental early-season AFC West matchup. That’s a big miss. After that, the Mannings will be off for Ravens at Colts on October 11th and Bills at Titans on October 18th before returning for some Halloween hi-jinx on the 25th, when the Saints visit the Seahawks. Talk about appointment television.
So that’s it, folks. More confirmation that nothing gold can stay and that there’s always a catch. Also even more incentive to catch one of the Manning masterclasses if you haven’t already. Lord knows we will.