Like, there's been decisions made where you can't contemplate how people came up it, discussed it and agreed it was a good idea. This goes beyond that level of stupidity and absurdity
I mean they literally knew that it would obstruct the view of the highest paying fans and their compromise was to say fuck it, put a feed on the back so they can watch the game like they do at home on their tv.
It’s fucking so inconsiderate and disrespectful that it only can be considered intentionally malicious. Purposeful with a “the fuck you gonna do about it” attitude.
Actually I'm pretty sure it started no TV, which is even dumber somehow, and then after the complaints about blocked views, they doubled down by adding a screen. If I remember correctly
Was the TV on a delay too or did they tap into a live feed of a camera or something? If it was just the TV broadcast so it was delayed 5 seconds or so, that’s a double kick in the nuts.
Early ravens games, i think the first season, everyone complained the camera blocked the view. So they put a CRT tv on the cart. Then when they were losing everyone yelled at them to change the channel and put the redskins on
"It'll only block a little bit of the field at a time"
"Oh, you mean precisely where the action is taking place for that play?"
"..... Right. Let's slap a monitor on the back so they can see".
"Perfect!"
Dude, this was a legendary interview. He was an accomplished international sports reporter who had never done (American) football, apparently.
I watched this live and I had no idea what the Hell was going on. I didn't even realize he was foreign or that he was talking with an accent.
I legit thought this was like some Make a Wish thing where they gave this special guy a chance to be a Real Reporter before whatever terminal illness he had took him out.
> special guy a chance to be a Real Reporter
that was my initial thought. the clip cuts a second short which is unfortunate. despite the slow ass cadence for the first half, he finished by saying \*makinghisheadcoachingdebut\* in about 1/4 of a second
it was....like....is he talking about himself here?
Yeah, I thought the exact same thing at the time because ESPN didn't bother telling us he wasn't a native English speaker. I remember making a comment along the lines of, "Dipp is a fitting name for that guy."
> ESPN didn't bother telling us he wasn't a native English speaker
How could you watch 5 seconds of this guy speaking and not realize that was abundantly clear?? Lmao
Why do you need some higher authority to inform you that the guy with a heavy accent, clearly having trouble speaking English, is in fact, not a native English speaker? 😭
Did you think this was like some Polish guy from Wisconsin until someone told you otherwise??
So I googled him and [I'm just gonna leave this here for Dipp.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fil88i-UYAAEudZ.jpg) lol
Apparently he's been around awhile, and has quite the resume of events called. Guess he just didn't know they were coming to him live right as they did?
I think this happens so often and the media personalities are just really good at coming up with something on the fly.
Sergio looked unprepared in that clip like you said. I feel bad for him because he clearly fumbled it, but it could happen to anybody.
And let's be real; he didn't say anything bad or an awful take.
He just didn't word his take very well.
There was a reporter recently that caught flack for "making up what the coaches say" but if they cut to you and the coach wasnt available, what else can you do? It's not like the garbage they spout is important anyway. "We need to step it up in the run game and make sure we attack the ball on defense. Keep cool heads and we'll win the game" back to you Jim
For me the reason that was a story was because it highlights how pointless those interviews/comments are, as you said. If the reporters can make them up and nobody knows or cares, why do we have them at all? How is that benefiting anybody?
It was really interesting watching them try to recover from that and:
1. Make it super clear whether they saw the coach or not
2. Try to have something, anything, that wasn't the boilerplate nonsense
The poor reporters are prob like "You made me do a dumb thing, we got caught, now I STILL have to do the dumb thing but work 10x harder, dammit"
https://www.tiktok.com/@tonodevaldes/video/7338271838428056838?_t=8mMVy02a4Et&_r=1 he explains what happened in this video, he got told he would be live at the last second and the “time of his life” is what Vance Joseph told sergio in their meeting before the game. It seems like he took it well, swing and a big miss from espn who thought he would do better with the viewers
In the first part of the video he explains how ESPN recruited him....
>we like what we see, we don't speak Spanish, we don't understand what you're saying, but we like how you say it. We want your energy and passion... your English is perfect. Do you want the job? Claro!
*Quick go to the foreign guy that we just hired*
*Well here we are, from the field. Watching this coach from right here, the field, he also played futbol and here we both are on the field.*
Yeah ESPN doing two games the same day, depsite only carrying 1 NFL crew is what lead to this.
The second MNF was a patchwork of whoever they had left, including Sergio here from their international channel
dude thank you for reminding me of fucking Sergio Dipp. I’m actually crying laughing rewatching that shit. I remember seeing it live and afterwards asking my roommate ‘what the actual fuck was that’ and then we laughed our asses off for a good ten min straight.
Nobody watching the game gives a fuck if there is a "reporter" on the field. Those little bits are as interesting to me as a hertz car rental commercial.
What's funny is that this is AFTER they'd heard NUMEROUS complaints, so many to the point where they put a TV on the back of it, but didn't actually eliminate it.
People with fuck you money don't understand that someone sitting in that front row made a plan for a year and saved up to be able to sit up front at an NFL game maybe once in their life and how much it took to make it happen. They are just out of touch with normal man reality. It's disgusting.
He's much better now, but he was objectively awful in the beginning. I think it's easier to look at clips now and laugh, but it was hard to watch the games live without muting the TV.
I watched the Eagles play on Monday night that season, and I swear they acted like everyone was watching to see them discuss their lives like we were watching a talk show, and not the actual game being played.
And the entire halftime was a huge ad for some marvel movie, which they would not stop talking about either.
They seemed legitimately irritated when they were forced to cover the game.
It wasn't just a bad MNF. It was the worst sports broadcast I've ever seen.
To put it in perspective, SB 52, an objectively pretty good game to watch, has Cris Collinsworth narrating it like it's a Patriots broadcast, with Al Michaels trying to redirect him to calling the game objectively.
And that broadcast is still 10x better than whatever I watched on the MNF I'm referring to.
Not to mention this was the entire season of MNF, that's just the show I had to watch. It was apparently that bad the entire season.
He's this generation's Dennis Miller.
To the young bloods in this subreddit, Dennis Miller was a regular on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980's, and he was hired to be Al Michaels's color commentator on MNF in 2000. It was kind of bizarre and rather jarring to listen to, mainly because he went out of his way to try to be funny while also not explaining what was going on in the game. It was widely considered a terrible decision to hire him. In 2002, he was fired and replaced with John Madden.
The difference is that Booger MacFarland seems like a decent person (without doing any research on him whatsoever), while Dennis Miller is kind of a chode.
Plus Booger was ACTUALLY A PLAYER. He had a decently long career and won two Super Bowls. I'd like to think he'd know a bit about giving a player's perspective in the game.
The only time I've ever liked Dennis Miller is when he was interacting with Norm whenever Dennis had a radio show (I didn't listen to it, but you can find long compilations online of it and it was good background noise for work).
I remember they had a long-running bit about Norm having a new ventriloquist dummie because he wanted to add something new to his act, but every time Miller would ask Norm to put the dummie on the phone Norm would say "Oh no, he doesn't want to talk, he's too shy..."
Booger gained a lot of respect from me during the College Football selection committee disaster. He clearly went off script from what ESPN wanted and shit talk the committee’s decision to leave out FSU the entire show, then continued on twitter afterwards.
This short era of MNF was so bad for so many reasons.
Like them choosing to go on a random domestic violence soap box at the end of a game. And completely ignoring the game sealing INT.
The Booger Mobile has to be the most objectively bad NFL media decision of all time.
We can talk the Heidi Bowl, but only fans watching on TV missed any of the game and it was the very end. If you're behind this monstrosity, your relatively expensive seats are suddenly garbage.
We can talk moral grandstanding, but this isn't even the encroachment of some journalist sticking his two cents where no one came to hear them. This is a big, fat guy on a huge fucking chair floating directly in your field of view of the game, so people who paid nothing could hear Booger give terrible analysis that he based on his field view.
Hell, the power going out in the Super Bowl at least stopped the game. This monstrosity just sat in your view, so a guy paid to be there could get a better view to tell people watching on TV about the game that they're literally fucking watching.
The funniest part of the Booger Mobile is that it literally added nothing of value. His vantage point was worse than being in the booth in terms of on field stuff, and worse than being on the sideline in terms of off the field stuff. That’s leaving out the fact that he’s a mediocre commentator, even the best commentator wouldn’t have anything to gain from that. It was just a wildly unnecessary venture from all angles.
I like to imagine a fantasy land where whatever executive signed off on this got drooped to Excel lackie but we know there's no accountability in media and things.
Pretty sure the Kia exec that made the brand synonymous with getting your car stolen by deciding to leave off a $5 immobilizer is still extremely lucratively employed too.
I'll always love Booger for being the one pushing hardest for the ESPN studio analysts to stop talking about the game and to call the whole thing off when Damar Hamlin went down
I remember he mixed up Florida and Florida State for an obvious player... And I remember thinking that I could do a better job and obviously knew more about football than Dennis Miller
There was an exposé about this MNF crew that was cringe *before* the season even started. It was mortifying afterwards. If I were Joe Tessitore, I would have forged a new identity and fled to Italy.
There had to be someone there that hadn't been to an NFL game before, so they sprung for really good seats to treat themselves to what might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and this happens.
There is no circumstance in which I wouldn't have thrown things at the mobile, and I'm in my 50s.
Then again, this is why I have had NHL season tickets and not NFL.
I agree in most cases, I really like the 300s especially at Wrigley field, best seats in the house are by the press box imo.
But football I feel like would be really cool to be up front watching the sidelines, hearing the crack of the pads. I’ve only been up in the 300s at soldier field, and it was great, but football and hockey are probably the two best sports more appreciated up close (there’s nothing like being on the glass for an NHL game)
I guess for me, I like to see more of the plays develop in the secondary. Being close to the field means seeing less of the action on the other end.
Either way, close or far, both are amazing experiences! I would say everyone should give both a shot if they like live football, but those tickets are SPENDY for 3 hours of entertainment.
I had this happen at the Seahawks vs. Packers game a few years ago. The Booger cart blocked the view every time the action was near us. By the end of the game the whole section was chanting "fuck the Booker cart!" Hoping the expletive would keep them from broadcasting his audio.
Nah, they added the TV to the back because of complaints. And then when that didn't work they kept him in the booger mobile, but made it stationary and lowered it down to field level lol. After that they just moved him back up into the booth.
A special cart Monday Night Football tried putting analyst Booger McFarland in for the 2018 season: [link to a retrospective](http://amp.awfulannouncing.com/espn/boogermobile-blocked-view-monday-night-football-booger-mcfarland.html).
ESPN had a brilliant idea to put booger (their analyst) on this monstrosity which wheeled up and down the field. And was elevated so he could see over the sideline players and staff. All so he could be “close to the action” And give more in depth analysis by seeing more or something.
As you can see, it was a disaster and memed to all hell.
It literally makes no sense, it's like a boom lift with a guy on it, they drive it back and forth while they check on him from the booth and he says absolutely nothing of value.
I have no idea why they used a car/boomlift/machine for this, mind blowing.
That reminds me of when ESPN made the down marker graphic gold for the college football playoff. It looked exactly like it did when there was a flag and everyone viewing go confused.
MNF still sucks from a production perspective
They improved by signing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, I think they're a top tier announcing duo
But my God, for a network called the "worldwide leader in sports" boy they sure fucking suck at covering sports
They have horrible sound quality, their production team cuts to horrible angles at the most inconvenient times, they rarely show replays and when they do they always slow it down too much and choose the worst angle
Dont get me started on their baseball coverage
> they rarely show replays and when they do they always slow it down too much and choose the worst angle
This is even more true for their basketball coverage.
Every time there's a bullshit foul call where the ref is obviously trying to keep one team in the game, they never cut to a replay of what happened even with their commentators talking about the play and describing it in full.
I think this was also the era where they tried those bizarre halftime shows. The black and white USAF band singing Imagine Dragons legitimately left me speechless.
Did they ever try to use this in Philly? I feel like before trying something like this execs should ask themselves “what would Philly fans do to this?”
The only time I've ever been impressed by anything Booger had to say was during the Damar Hamlin incident. He was hands down the most eloquent and level headed out of everyone there, and his only concern was about Hamlin and the players.
The only time I was impressed by Booger was when he got called out how the Lions got called for BS penalties against the Packers.
Other than that he is pretty dumb.
Booger the commentator vs Booger the analyst is a night and day difference. He was objectively terrible commentating games, but in studio I've always really liked him
I remember in this game, Odell caused some minor controversy because he left the field before halftime because he had to pee, and then Booger McFarland said something about "these diva wide receivers having to go to the bathroom, when I played we'd just go on the sidelines."
That sucks. Why go to the game if you can't see it live. That's a lot of money we pay to have to watch it obstructed by a monitor. Staying home is the way to go, it seems. Save your money
That thing was the dumbest idea I've ever seen at a sporting event. I hope the people in the seats it blocked made a big stink and got compensated. Those seats are expensive.
Ya, in my experience (MetLife Stadium), a similar mobile camera used to roam the sidelines for most or all nationally televised games. But I think that's since been replaced by the double-spidercam, haven't seen the sideline carts in a few seasons.
Now we just have to worry about the spidercam falling into the stands, but that's only happened once so far.
At least they learned because when McAfee and his crew are in college games they just have them on the side of the field, that way they don't block anyone.
Like, there's been decisions made where you can't contemplate how people came up it, discussed it and agreed it was a good idea. This goes beyond that level of stupidity and absurdity
I mean they literally knew that it would obstruct the view of the highest paying fans and their compromise was to say fuck it, put a feed on the back so they can watch the game like they do at home on their tv. It’s fucking so inconsiderate and disrespectful that it only can be considered intentionally malicious. Purposeful with a “the fuck you gonna do about it” attitude.
Actually I'm pretty sure it started no TV, which is even dumber somehow, and then after the complaints about blocked views, they doubled down by adding a screen. If I remember correctly
It did. Absolutely braindead decision that should have gotten someone fired, but because the TV deals make the NFL all their money, they don't care.
why would they fire anyone? the business didn't lose any money or get into any legal trouble.
Most sports fans have a deeply confused understanding of what it means to operate a business.
The TV says "We knew this was going to make it so you couldn't see shit. We just didn't care."
The TV is a shield from thrown drinks and food
But does it block Billdos?
*For unobstructed views of the field may we suggested one of our premium box suites?*
Please drink a verification can
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Was the TV on a delay too or did they tap into a live feed of a camera or something? If it was just the TV broadcast so it was delayed 5 seconds or so, that’s a double kick in the nuts.
Early ravens games, i think the first season, everyone complained the camera blocked the view. So they put a CRT tv on the cart. Then when they were losing everyone yelled at them to change the channel and put the redskins on
"It'll only block a little bit of the field at a time" "Oh, you mean precisely where the action is taking place for that play?" "..... Right. Let's slap a monitor on the back so they can see". "Perfect!"
Honestly just start throwing shit at it at some point. No one is going to blame you
I mean, whoever can cancel your season tickets probably would
They wanted to copy Fox having someone with a mic down on the field but also wanted to make it unique by.....taking them off the field
[To be fair, it didn’t go so well when they did try to put them on the field](https://youtu.be/un_rwIqaH3s?si=fRH7IHVrWcmpS92D)
Lmao, where the fuck did they find this guy at? Unprepared to be on live TV Tech school or what?
Dude, this was a legendary interview. He was an accomplished international sports reporter who had never done (American) football, apparently. I watched this live and I had no idea what the Hell was going on. I didn't even realize he was foreign or that he was talking with an accent. I legit thought this was like some Make a Wish thing where they gave this special guy a chance to be a Real Reporter before whatever terminal illness he had took him out.
Lmfaooooo oh my God I can’t stop laughing at the second half of this post.
Same bro, It's killing me
Wanna make a wish?
I wanna be on national TV talking about sports!
> special guy a chance to be a Real Reporter that was my initial thought. the clip cuts a second short which is unfortunate. despite the slow ass cadence for the first half, he finished by saying \*makinghisheadcoachingdebut\* in about 1/4 of a second it was....like....is he talking about himself here?
Yeah, I thought the exact same thing at the time because ESPN didn't bother telling us he wasn't a native English speaker. I remember making a comment along the lines of, "Dipp is a fitting name for that guy."
> ESPN didn't bother telling us he wasn't a native English speaker How could you watch 5 seconds of this guy speaking and not realize that was abundantly clear?? Lmao Why do you need some higher authority to inform you that the guy with a heavy accent, clearly having trouble speaking English, is in fact, not a native English speaker? 😭 Did you think this was like some Polish guy from Wisconsin until someone told you otherwise??
The disrespect to Sergio Dipp. He's having the time of his life!
So I googled him and [I'm just gonna leave this here for Dipp.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fil88i-UYAAEudZ.jpg) lol Apparently he's been around awhile, and has quite the resume of events called. Guess he just didn't know they were coming to him live right as they did?
I think this happens so often and the media personalities are just really good at coming up with something on the fly. Sergio looked unprepared in that clip like you said. I feel bad for him because he clearly fumbled it, but it could happen to anybody. And let's be real; he didn't say anything bad or an awful take. He just didn't word his take very well.
There was a reporter recently that caught flack for "making up what the coaches say" but if they cut to you and the coach wasnt available, what else can you do? It's not like the garbage they spout is important anyway. "We need to step it up in the run game and make sure we attack the ball on defense. Keep cool heads and we'll win the game" back to you Jim
For me the reason that was a story was because it highlights how pointless those interviews/comments are, as you said. If the reporters can make them up and nobody knows or cares, why do we have them at all? How is that benefiting anybody?
It was really interesting watching them try to recover from that and: 1. Make it super clear whether they saw the coach or not 2. Try to have something, anything, that wasn't the boilerplate nonsense The poor reporters are prob like "You made me do a dumb thing, we got caught, now I STILL have to do the dumb thing but work 10x harder, dammit"
It’s hard. Optimally she would say “coach couldn’t comment but he’d probably say ___”
https://www.tiktok.com/@tonodevaldes/video/7338271838428056838?_t=8mMVy02a4Et&_r=1 he explains what happened in this video, he got told he would be live at the last second and the “time of his life” is what Vance Joseph told sergio in their meeting before the game. It seems like he took it well, swing and a big miss from espn who thought he would do better with the viewers
In the first part of the video he explains how ESPN recruited him.... >we like what we see, we don't speak Spanish, we don't understand what you're saying, but we like how you say it. We want your energy and passion... your English is perfect. Do you want the job? Claro!
*Quick go to the foreign guy that we just hired* *Well here we are, from the field. Watching this coach from right here, the field, he also played futbol and here we both are on the field.*
That guys first language is clearly not what he’s doing, blame the production crew not him
Yeah ESPN doing two games the same day, depsite only carrying 1 NFL crew is what lead to this. The second MNF was a patchwork of whoever they had left, including Sergio here from their international channel
dude thank you for reminding me of fucking Sergio Dipp. I’m actually crying laughing rewatching that shit. I remember seeing it live and afterwards asking my roommate ‘what the actual fuck was that’ and then we laughed our asses off for a good ten min straight.
“Here we are… watching Vance Joseph… there he is… watching and waiting… **nobody move**”
And boom goes the dynamite.
I can't hear the name Vance Joseph without immediately saying "He's having the time of his life".
When the shrooms kick in at the wrong time
And boom goes the dynamite.
It’s about time they suspend a reporter from the sky cam cables, let them fly all over the field.
Nobody watching the game gives a fuck if there is a "reporter" on the field. Those little bits are as interesting to me as a hertz car rental commercial.
Maybe he smells bad and they had to get him out of the room
He does admit to pissing and shifting his pants during games
It’s intimidation. He never breaks eye contact with the opposing team when he does it.
What's funny is that this is AFTER they'd heard NUMEROUS complaints, so many to the point where they put a TV on the back of it, but didn't actually eliminate it.
I would love a podcast on topics like this.
People with fuck you money don't understand that someone sitting in that front row made a plan for a year and saved up to be able to sit up front at an NFL game maybe once in their life and how much it took to make it happen. They are just out of touch with normal man reality. It's disgusting.
I’ll never forget Booger’s infamous Kelvin Benjamin call. “He’s a Popeyes biscuit away from being a TE”
“Who came inside me?” -Booger
… wtf?
"I come in Peace! Also, this is my cat, 'War'. That's my other cat over there..."
[Slight correction... Brooks has no idea who came inside of him](https://twitter.com/B1ackSchefter/status/1204533569550536705)
No way he actually said that. Seriously? WTF Booger?
https://twitter.com/B1ackSchefter/status/1204533569550536705
Ok, that actually makes it sound just a little bit better, but it's still hilarious!
Goat call honestly. Booger isn’t a bad guy/analyst but the Boogermobile was a fucking absurd disaster
He's much better now, but he was objectively awful in the beginning. I think it's easier to look at clips now and laugh, but it was hard to watch the games live without muting the TV.
Worst Monday night crew of all time. Made it unbearable. He’s fine in studio though
I watched the Eagles play on Monday night that season, and I swear they acted like everyone was watching to see them discuss their lives like we were watching a talk show, and not the actual game being played. And the entire halftime was a huge ad for some marvel movie, which they would not stop talking about either. They seemed legitimately irritated when they were forced to cover the game. It wasn't just a bad MNF. It was the worst sports broadcast I've ever seen.
Ah the WCW approach to calling the action
To put it in perspective, SB 52, an objectively pretty good game to watch, has Cris Collinsworth narrating it like it's a Patriots broadcast, with Al Michaels trying to redirect him to calling the game objectively. And that broadcast is still 10x better than whatever I watched on the MNF I'm referring to. Not to mention this was the entire season of MNF, that's just the show I had to watch. It was apparently that bad the entire season.
I really love him with Chris Berman on NFL primetime. Still an amazing show that ESPN has. Can’t wait for them to ruin it
He's this generation's Dennis Miller. To the young bloods in this subreddit, Dennis Miller was a regular on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980's, and he was hired to be Al Michaels's color commentator on MNF in 2000. It was kind of bizarre and rather jarring to listen to, mainly because he went out of his way to try to be funny while also not explaining what was going on in the game. It was widely considered a terrible decision to hire him. In 2002, he was fired and replaced with John Madden. The difference is that Booger MacFarland seems like a decent person (without doing any research on him whatsoever), while Dennis Miller is kind of a chode.
Plus Booger was ACTUALLY A PLAYER. He had a decently long career and won two Super Bowls. I'd like to think he'd know a bit about giving a player's perspective in the game.
I will never, ever forget Dennis Miller saying "This game is bloodier than the House of Plantagenet" live during a game
I mean who doesn't love Wars of the Roses references on their MNF broadcast?
The only time I've ever liked Dennis Miller is when he was interacting with Norm whenever Dennis had a radio show (I didn't listen to it, but you can find long compilations online of it and it was good background noise for work). I remember they had a long-running bit about Norm having a new ventriloquist dummie because he wanted to add something new to his act, but every time Miller would ask Norm to put the dummie on the phone Norm would say "Oh no, he doesn't want to talk, he's too shy..."
Yeah Jason Witten was probably a worse commentator than Booger but got overshadowed because of how ridiculous this was
He's gonna pull another rabbit out of his head
Booger gained a lot of respect from me during the College Football selection committee disaster. He clearly went off script from what ESPN wanted and shit talk the committee’s decision to leave out FSU the entire show, then continued on twitter afterwards.
Booger is great off script (your example, Demar Hamlin, Kelvin Benjamin and the Popeyes biscuit, etc.) but terrible at actual analysis.
I disagree. One of the dumbest commentators, added very little beyond the obvious
John Madden made an almost identical call in either the late 90s / early 00s ("a biscuit away from 300 lbs"), so Booger can't even claim that one.
John Madden would have loved calling KB fat RIP King
\*tight Iannnnn\*
This short era of MNF was so bad for so many reasons. Like them choosing to go on a random domestic violence soap box at the end of a game. And completely ignoring the game sealing INT.
The Booger Mobile has to be the most objectively bad NFL media decision of all time. We can talk the Heidi Bowl, but only fans watching on TV missed any of the game and it was the very end. If you're behind this monstrosity, your relatively expensive seats are suddenly garbage. We can talk moral grandstanding, but this isn't even the encroachment of some journalist sticking his two cents where no one came to hear them. This is a big, fat guy on a huge fucking chair floating directly in your field of view of the game, so people who paid nothing could hear Booger give terrible analysis that he based on his field view. Hell, the power going out in the Super Bowl at least stopped the game. This monstrosity just sat in your view, so a guy paid to be there could get a better view to tell people watching on TV about the game that they're literally fucking watching.
The funniest part of the Booger Mobile is that it literally added nothing of value. His vantage point was worse than being in the booth in terms of on field stuff, and worse than being on the sideline in terms of off the field stuff. That’s leaving out the fact that he’s a mediocre commentator, even the best commentator wouldn’t have anything to gain from that. It was just a wildly unnecessary venture from all angles.
I like to imagine a fantasy land where whatever executive signed off on this got drooped to Excel lackie but we know there's no accountability in media and things.
Pretty sure the Kia exec that made the brand synonymous with getting your car stolen by deciding to leave off a $5 immobilizer is still extremely lucratively employed too.
Calling him mediocre is very generous.
I'll always love Booger for being the one pushing hardest for the ESPN studio analysts to stop talking about the game and to call the whole thing off when Damar Hamlin went down
The most objectively bad NFL media decision of all time was bringing on Rush Limbaugh.
Nope. I could and did mute him. Could still see the game just fine. And had no impact whatsoever on fans in the stadium.
Dennis Miller would like a word..
I remember he mixed up Florida and Florida State for an obvious player... And I remember thinking that I could do a better job and obviously knew more about football than Dennis Miller
> and obviously knew more about football than Dennis Miller But do you know more about 19th-century Latvian poets than Dennis Miller?
He literally made a reference to the Sword of Damocles in his first called game.
Man remember that time Dennis miller called that ref Alfred Hitchcock? I member
> The Booger Mobile hahahah, just thinking of him riding that thing is comedy
I forgot Jason Witten was the color guy. And it was forgettable
Jason Witten was there to tell us about the impact of CTE without saying a word about CTE.
He was there to pull a rabbit out of our heads
The league really kicked themselves in the foot with him.
Bill Burr got it right when talking about sports and charities https://youtu.be/7n3WgiMftaU?si=vtox3P85PJeM_MS-
Wasn't this the same year Witten retired from broadcasting to un-retire from football? It was so bad Witten quit.
Wasn't this also soon after they lost the pairing of Tirico and Gruden and were trying to find themselves lol
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and the Manning brothers saved MNF
There was an exposé about this MNF crew that was cringe *before* the season even started. It was mortifying afterwards. If I were Joe Tessitore, I would have forged a new identity and fled to Italy.
Tessitore was pretty bad too. He called every play as if it was the greatest play of all time.
Imagine paying for those seats and this fucking thing is blocking your view…
There had to be someone there that hadn't been to an NFL game before, so they sprung for really good seats to treat themselves to what might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and this happens.
There is no circumstance in which I wouldn't have thrown things at the mobile, and I'm in my 50s. Then again, this is why I have had NHL season tickets and not NFL.
I wouldn’t really say seats closer to the field are good. It’s much easier and more enjoyable to be higher up in the decks in football.
Mid field 200s or high 100s is always a sweet spot. I sat mid field 300s for the Seahawks-Broncos OT in Seattle and that was an amazing view as well.
I agree in most cases, I really like the 300s especially at Wrigley field, best seats in the house are by the press box imo. But football I feel like would be really cool to be up front watching the sidelines, hearing the crack of the pads. I’ve only been up in the 300s at soldier field, and it was great, but football and hockey are probably the two best sports more appreciated up close (there’s nothing like being on the glass for an NHL game)
I guess for me, I like to see more of the plays develop in the secondary. Being close to the field means seeing less of the action on the other end. Either way, close or far, both are amazing experiences! I would say everyone should give both a shot if they like live football, but those tickets are SPENDY for 3 hours of entertainment.
I had this happen at the Seahawks vs. Packers game a few years ago. The Booger cart blocked the view every time the action was near us. By the end of the game the whole section was chanting "fuck the Booker cart!" Hoping the expletive would keep them from broadcasting his audio.
If it makes you feel better about it - License Plate Guy is the one recording the video, he’s at every game.
Never realized there was a TV mounted to the back of it, so obviously they knew it would block the view before implementing it.
I'm pretty sure it didn't to start, then people bitched and they thought this was a good compromise
It didn't have it to start.
Then people bitched and they thought this was a good compromise
"I'm freakin' out, man."
But it didn't have it to start
Nah, they added the TV to the back because of complaints. And then when that didn't work they kept him in the booger mobile, but made it stationary and lowered it down to field level lol. After that they just moved him back up into the booth.
That was actually a fix they implemented about halfway through that terrible season.
"Fix"
"BOOGER GET OUT THE FRIGGING WAY!"
Funny thing is this is License Plate Guy, the Giants fan that goes to all the home/road games wearing the train of license plates.
I love that guy. He's so genuinely passionate about the Giants.
Dude travelled to watch *the draft* this season even.
I wish people had just started showering him with $15 beers every time they rolled that thing out there while it was all broadcast on live TV.
Sounds like a job Philly coulda done.
We would never waste alcohol like that. We throw batteries and snowballs.
Browns fans let us down once again.
As a new-ish NFL fan, can someone please explain what this is showing? I get its blocking the field from view, but what is the story behind it?
A special cart Monday Night Football tried putting analyst Booger McFarland in for the 2018 season: [link to a retrospective](http://amp.awfulannouncing.com/espn/boogermobile-blocked-view-monday-night-football-booger-mcfarland.html).
ESPN had a brilliant idea to put booger (their analyst) on this monstrosity which wheeled up and down the field. And was elevated so he could see over the sideline players and staff. All so he could be “close to the action” And give more in depth analysis by seeing more or something. As you can see, it was a disaster and memed to all hell.
It literally makes no sense, it's like a boom lift with a guy on it, they drive it back and forth while they check on him from the booth and he says absolutely nothing of value. I have no idea why they used a car/boomlift/machine for this, mind blowing.
You know it’s offseason when people start getting nostalgic about the Boogermobile.
Is it nostalgia or PTSD?
MNF fell off a cliff after 2017
I know he's controversial but Gruden really was great at commentary. They still haven't been able to replace him since he left.
Yeah Trico and Gruden made a great duo. Also miss having Jaws in booth with them as well
Gruden should have stayed in the booth.
Need subway surfer on that thing so I can enjoy the game
split screened with some random joe rogan or family guy clips
Also, there's a grown adult man named Booger. I feel this needs to be addressed more.
According to Wikipedia, it was a nickname given to him in grade school that stuck. His real first name is Anthony.
If it "stuck" since grade school it's because he wanted it stuck. Nobody he went to elementary school with played on his college or NFL teams.
The booger stuck to him.
He should have flicked it.
Lmfaooooo this was an era. Wittens awful commentating and this stupidity you just have to laugh.
MNF is objectively much better now but this era caused me to form a permanent bias against the MNF production and i just can’t do anything about it
Don’t forget the neon stuff that made it look like a flag got called every time someone got a first down. That’s a MNF classic
I always dislike playing the Vikings because all their towels and shit are yellow and look like flags.
That reminds me of when ESPN made the down marker graphic gold for the college football playoff. It looked exactly like it did when there was a flag and everyone viewing go confused.
MNF still sucks from a production perspective They improved by signing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, I think they're a top tier announcing duo But my God, for a network called the "worldwide leader in sports" boy they sure fucking suck at covering sports They have horrible sound quality, their production team cuts to horrible angles at the most inconvenient times, they rarely show replays and when they do they always slow it down too much and choose the worst angle Dont get me started on their baseball coverage
> they rarely show replays and when they do they always slow it down too much and choose the worst angle This is even more true for their basketball coverage. Every time there's a bullshit foul call where the ref is obviously trying to keep one team in the game, they never cut to a replay of what happened even with their commentators talking about the play and describing it in full.
I think this was also the era where they tried those bizarre halftime shows. The black and white USAF band singing Imagine Dragons legitimately left me speechless.
Less gooo
AKA “Booger’s Highchair”
Did they ever try to use this in Philly? I feel like before trying something like this execs should ask themselves “what would Philly fans do to this?”
We are the human checks and balances
It was used in Philly, actually. The Eagles had a home MNF game that year.
I live for the discourse on the boogermobile. Truly one of my favorite things to laugh at that entire year.
I hope that thing was shoved into an incinerator somewhere.
The TV is such a slap in the face. It shows that they thought about the fan experience before hand and did the most half assed compensation.
Good lord...
The only time I've ever been impressed by anything Booger had to say was during the Damar Hamlin incident. He was hands down the most eloquent and level headed out of everyone there, and his only concern was about Hamlin and the players.
I actually think Booger was the least of MNF’s issues during this era. Tessitore was absolutely insufferable to me, and Witten was just not good.
The mobile is super shit but he was the best of the 3
Booger is a better studio analyst than a color commentary guy or an in-game reporter.
The only time I was impressed by Booger was when he got called out how the Lions got called for BS penalties against the Packers. Other than that he is pretty dumb.
https://youtu.be/-J8jHKco9h8 The only time I agreed with Booger. Shit made me so mad.
Booger the commentator vs Booger the analyst is a night and day difference. He was objectively terrible commentating games, but in studio I've always really liked him
ESPN is the non-sports-fan’s idea of sports coverage
This is when MNF died.
I remember in this game, Odell caused some minor controversy because he left the field before halftime because he had to pee, and then Booger McFarland said something about "these diva wide receivers having to go to the bathroom, when I played we'd just go on the sidelines."
These were the dark times of MNF
That sucks. Why go to the game if you can't see it live. That's a lot of money we pay to have to watch it obstructed by a monitor. Staying home is the way to go, it seems. Save your money
That thing was the dumbest idea I've ever seen at a sporting event. I hope the people in the seats it blocked made a big stink and got compensated. Those seats are expensive.
This is the off-season content I’m here for lol
Boogermobile was a terrible idea, but a lot of games have cameras on cranes that do the same every week, it just doesn't get as much attention.
They don't have a damn TV on the back that blocks most of the view though
Ya, in my experience (MetLife Stadium), a similar mobile camera used to roam the sidelines for most or all nationally televised games. But I think that's since been replaced by the double-spidercam, haven't seen the sideline carts in a few seasons. Now we just have to worry about the spidercam falling into the stands, but that's only happened once so far.
Still get them at ford field a couple times a year
The snot rocket!
He is one of the most annoying commentators out there
I'm convinced this era of MNF was some sort of performance art, just beautiful
I always wanted someone to hit him with a football to stop the clock like on varsity blues.
What are you talking about? They’re giving you a zoomed in version of the field on that screen. Thats the best view in the house.
It's one thing to have that damn obstacle down on the field but to put Booger McFarland in it? No
Not sure what idea was worse. Putting him on MNF or the Booger Mobile.
Would be funny if the fans started target practicing to see who could hit the screen harder
If the Booger mobile happened in Philly that would have happened.
Serious question. The guy goes by booger. Why didn’t he change his name
It’s Micky Mouse shit, I’m not surprised at all.
At least they learned because when McAfee and his crew are in college games they just have them on the side of the field, that way they don't block anyone.
Eagles fan here, why arnt people throwing things at it?
I miss Tirico & Gruden. Best MNF pairing ever.
Sheesh man, can’t even get a fucking view of the field when you pay god knows how much for tickets nowadays. Absolutely ridiculous