Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden, welcome to the limelight. Gruden was just announced as the new color guy after its other star -- D.C. sports pundit and former columnist Tony Kornheiser, who also co-helms -- stepped down, saying that he was too overcome with a fear of flying to continue jetting around the country every Sunday.
Smell a rat?
We're inclined to believe this -- Kornheiser does have a well-documented flight fear. He used to take a bus from game to game, according to his departure statement, but after looking at this season's erratic, trans-continental schedule, decided it was unlikely he could stomach the travel.
But a nagging part of us can't help but think he got sacked. (Football pun allowance = expunged.)
The thinking:
Aren't there less embarrassing excuses than "I puke and freak out when I fly?"
experimented with comedic color commentators before -- with Dennis Miller, whose random references ("Did you see how the Ravens all wear that -- they're like tough guys in Annie Hall hats") did him and the show no favors. Annoyed fans even started a website asking ESPN to annotate Miller's pop-culture tangents with on-screen pop-up bubbles explaining their provenance. So the network did -- sort of -- creating an annotated Dennis Miller archive. It didn't help. If your teeth need gritting, or your eyes rolling, click that link.
Kornheiser was better and funnier. But what works on -- an affable, brainy, quippy style -- isn't necessarily thrilling when there's a real-time game going on in the background. With , in its 40th season this year, fans seem to want to hear about the from the . There's a reason John Madden was as ratings-potent as he was, for as long as he was -- and it wasn't his likening of an Eagles cornerback to the quatrain verse of Nostradamus.
Famous for his expressive sideline faces -- check 'em out, here -- Gruden is also younger, blonder, tanner, more visor-y and prone to "We Are Marshall"-style lockerroom speeches that go viral on YouTube. He's the Kristin Cavallari to Kornheiser's Lauren Conrad. While we've been in the Kornheiser (and Conrad) corner since his earliest column (and her ) days, maybe... it's time.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
