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<\/a>Play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough (right) is back for his second year in the ESPN Monday Night Football broadcast booth with analyst Jon Gruden.<\/p><\/div>\n
At the forefront of MNF<\/em> innovation this year, the network is looking to make greater use of the real-time RFID player-tracking data that the NFL has been gathering for its Next-Gen Stats project. The league has been working with Zebra Technologies to place chips in the players\u2019 pads since 2014, and ESPN producers spent the summer working with NFL brass to formulate better ways to access and use that data in on-air graphics.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve worked really hard on mining what we think is some interesting data that will lead to interesting storytelling and documentation throughout the season,\u201d says ESPN VP, Production, Jay Rothman<\/strong>, who has been lead producer of Monday Night Football<\/em> since the property moved to the cable network in 2006. \u201cMuch of [this data] really hasn\u2019t been on the air thus far, and we\u2019ve spent a lot of time with [the NFL] \u2026 to grind through that. We think there\u2019s some really interesting data that \u2026 will be of use to fans. Timely and relevant [data]: we\u2019re excited to dig into that.\u201d<\/p>\nESPN\u2019s graphics team, which took home this year\u2019s Sports Emmy in Outstanding Post-Produced Graphic Design (for the third consecutive year), will be working that real-time data into full-screen, augmented-reality, and standard lower-third graphics throughout the broadcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always looking to add some tweaks and wrinkles here and there, so I am very proud [of our graphics team],\u201d says Rothman, who has been with ESPN full-time since 1988. \u201cWe\u2019re very proud of the presentation and look of Monday Night Football<\/em>, and that hasn\u2019t changed. We\u2019re not standing pat, and this next change-up I think will be really smart and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\nAlso on the graphics front, ESPN last year tried something a little different with its on-screen scorebug, which it strips across the bottom of the screen. When the ball was in play and game action was happening, the scorebug was faded out to give the game more space on the screen. According to Rothman, the network has \u201chad no pushback,\u201d and it appears the practice will continue this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to keep the screen clear of clutter once the ball is snapped,\u201d says Rothman. \u201cWe beat ourselves up when we were first starting it. It was annoying to be in and out and in and out all the time, but we really have had no pushback from fans. It\u2019s meant to be there when play is not in action and drop when the ball is snapped. We like keeping the screen as clear as possible during action.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year marks the 48th season of Monday Night Football<\/em> (the 12th on ESPN), and it kicks off Monday at 7 p.m. ET with the New Orleans Saints visiting the Minnesota Vikings. Play-by-play caller Sean McDonough<\/strong> enters his second year as lead voice on the iconic brand and will be reunited with analyst Jon Gruden<\/strong> and sideline reporter Lisa Slaters<\/strong>. Producer Rothman is back with longtime directing partner Chip Dean<\/strong>.<\/p>\nThe second half of the opening-night double will feature a bit of history: Beth Mowins<\/strong> will become the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game when she teams up with analyst Rex Ryan<\/strong> and sideline reporter Sergio Dipp<\/strong> (of ESPN Deportes fame) to call the San Diego Changers at the Denver Broncos at 10:15 p.m.<\/p>\nThroughout the season, ESPN Deportes\u2019 Spanish-language version of the game broadcast will be simulcast on ESPN2. All games will stream live across all platforms on the ESPN app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As has become tradition, Monday Night Football kicks off this Monday with a doubleheader of games to wrap up Week 1 of the NFL season, and it promises to feature […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":125362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[9248,33],"tags":[131,1578,6773],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125361"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125366,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125361\/revisions\/125366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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