“I liked hearing him say that he couldn’t breathe his first time out there. That’s how I feel tonight.”

— New ESPN “MNF” announcer Tony Kornheiser, echoing Raiders S Michael Huff’s comments about his first NFL game (“MNF,” ESPN, 8/14).

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The ESPN debut of “MNF” is playing to mixed reviews today, which mainly focus on Tony Kornheiser’s new role. One critic calls Kornheiser “snarky, but not irritating,” while another writes it “sounded like he’d done enough prep work to reasonably comment” on the Raiders-Vikings preseason game. But Paul Farhi, Kornheiser’s colleague at the Washington Post, writes his performance “was enough to make one yearn for Dennis Miller,” and another pundit adds the broadcast “left us wondering why ESPN didn’t just stick” with its old Sunday night team.

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Screen Capture
NFL returns scaled-back version of sponsored vignettes to broadcasts.

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Jillian Barberie out as weather correspondent on Fox’ NFL pregame show.

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