With ESPN telling Hank Williams Jr. and all his rowdy friends to go home, the Worldwide Leader needed to find someone else to intro "Monday Night Football." Their choice for the first broadcast of the MNF era, post-Hank? Barry Sanders.
He won't be singing a country music song, though. He'll be featured in some other form of video segment that previews the game. From the Detroit Free Press:
"Ok, I admit it," Barry Sanders tweeted. "I will be at MNF this week and doing the intro."
Said ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz, "This is the format we'll likely use the remainder of the season. We haven't made any decisions beyond that."
I suppose we can expect something similar from here on out. No song (myself, I feel like this would have rocked the house), but an ex-player or someone else affiliated with the home city in a pre-packaged video segment. Best of luck to ESPN in finding someone for the remaining two MNF games in Jacksonville.
This is the kind of thing ESPN does well. Say what you want about the Worldwide Leader, but they can pump out a slickly produced hype video. On short notice, this isn't a bad call at all. Maybe by next year, they'll have come up with a suitable new song, but for now, we get video segments.
