Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Lisa Salters and Producer Jay Rothman Discuss 2013 MNF Season
ESPN conducted a media conference call today with the Monday Night Football producer Jay Rothman and commentators Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Lisa Salters to discuss the 2013 NFL season. ESPN kicks off the 44th year of MNF on September 9 with a doubleheader: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Redskins (7 p.m. ET) and Houston Texans vs. San Diego Chargers (10:15 p.m.). Full audio replay; MNF TV schedule and photos). Transcript:
JAY ROTHMAN: Hello, everybody. We’re extremely excited to kick off the 44th season of Monday Night Football. Also, (we’re) very excited to kick off our second year of the team of Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Lisa Salters. They had a terrific first year together, and we’re only looking to improve on our success from last year. It’s a group that works extremely hard, extremely passionate, love what we do, and we work hard to be the best NFL watch every week.
We don’t get to play in the postseason, so every week is the Super Bowl for us regardless of the match‑up on paper. This group gives it all we have until the end of the fourth quarter, and (we’re) really proud of what we did last year, and as I said, looking to get better this year.
A couple of new exciting things for us: Producing MNF will be in brand new state‑of‑the‑art mobile units, so any of you that might be coming to a MNF game, please let Bill or myself know. We’d be happy to give you a tour. They are unbelievable, state‑of‑the‑art. The country’s largest mobile unit, technically advanced like no other, and just tremendous working conditions for us to do our jobs in and bring MNF to fans each and every Monday night, so we’re excited about that.
We also have a new open this year. We’ve been working for seven months with Hollywood director Peter Berg, who has directed Friday Night Lights among other films, a terrific talent, and have collaborated with him to present a new open for Monday night, which we’re excited about. It’s a departure from any musical videos that we’ve done or any other networks have done for that matter, and it’s really a celebration of the 44‑year history of Monday night with pop culture and all of the legendary broadcasters that have brought you the game. We’re excited about that to open up our coverage.
>>Complete Copy of ESPN MNF Conference Call Transcript – 8/29/13<<
