It is a BOLD strategy Cotton.
After swinging and missing at Tony Romo, ESPN is putting their secondary plan into action according to the NY Post.
Thinking large and outside the box, ESPN plans to attempt to acquire Al Michaels from NBC Sports for “Monday Night Football,” The Post has learned.
ESPN would like to team Michaels with Peyton Manning in its dream booth, according to sources.
Besides adding the glamour of a Michaels-Romo combination to the telecast, Disney, which owns ESPN, would head into its upcoming NFL rights negotiations with the biggest-name broadcast team in the business. Disney hopes to add more NFL and a Super Bowl for ABC/ESPN in the coming years.
The network believes a Michaels-Manning pairing would have the same sizzle as Michaels-Romo. Michaels, 75, is arguably the best NFL TV play-by-player ever, while Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks in history.
Talks between NBC/Comcast and Disney/ESPN have yet to begin. Since Michaels has two years remaining on his contract, NBC could simply turn down ESPN’s request.
If NBC gave Michaels the green light, he would likely receive a hefty raise in the process and could add Manning to his collection of analysts that includes Howard Cosell, John Madden and now Cris Collinsworth.
There is precedent for a trade. In 2006, Michaels was set to continue on MNF as it transferred from ABC to ESPN, having agreed to a new deal to remain on the broadcast.
After Michaels’ MNF partner, John Madden, left for NBC, Michaels asked out of his signed contract. ESPN obliged, but it received Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in return.
Flip the page for some of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
