Smooth PR Move Executed by ESPN

ESPN announced earlier this week that Tony Kornheiser voluntarily relinquished his spot as color commentator in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth and that former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Jon Gruden is replacing him.

On the surface it seems like a logical move by ESPN to transition Gruden into Kornheiser’s position.

Kornheiser citied his fear of flying as the reason for stepping down from the booth. No one can blame a person who’s suffering from flying anxiety for wanting to limit his air travel.

Plus Kornheiser is not leaving the network; he’s remaining as co-host of ESPN’s highly successful talk show, Pardon the Interruption.

Gruden was a very successful and respected head coach for the Bucs. During his seven years in Tampa Bay the team won its first-ever Super Bowl, made three playoff appearances and tallied an overall record of 95-81. Considering the history of the Bucs, that's an astonishing mark.

Gruden’s record on the field and his personality and charisma off it made him one of the most popular coaches in the game.

So, all-in-all, things seemed pretty smooth in media-land when a press release was issued announcing the broadcast change and then Gruden hit the airways promoting his new job with ESPN.

But one has to wonder if this was an amicable move for all parties involved or if ESPN pulled off a great public relations coup.

We’re all aware of the problems MNF has suffered during the last few years. Ratings have struggled, the game had to move from ABC to ESPN and certain selections of color analysts have been, to put it mildly, questionable (has anyone figured out yet what Dennis Miller was doing 10 miles within a sports broadcast booth?).

Before joining the MNF broadcast team in 2006, Kornheiser was already a popular and respected personality in the sports media world. His funny and satirical columns made him a popular read in the Washington Post sports pages and put him on the map.

He then parlayed his writing style into a successful sports talk radio show in Washington D.C. and, ultimately, became a national sports personality (along with Post colleague Michael Wilbon) from his work on PTI.

Kornheiser’s style of balancing his witty and sarcastic insight with news and current events in the sports world is his trademark. He’s one of the best at using that technique.

But it was clear he was not a good choice in joining Joe Theismann as a replacement for the legendary John Madden in the MNF booth. And after Theismann left MNF after just one season, teaming Kornheiser with Ron Jaworski as color analysts also did not fare very well.

Although you have to admire the MNF people for trying to broaden their audience with a unique type of analyst, it was obvious that the broadcast suffered and Kornheiser was a mistake.

It’s a mystery, though, as to why ESPN stuck with Kornheiser for three seasons. Maybe they thought he would improve or maybe the network wanted to avoid another personnel decision that would further damage the once prestigious MNF brand.

Oh, and the excuse of Kornheiser being so afraid of flying, all of a sudden, he had to give up the best weekly broadcasting gig in all of sports also seems kind of suspicious.

Although it’s known within the industry that Kornheiser has problems with flying and certainly isn’t comfortable with it, when you look a little deeper at the situation his fear appears more of a convenient excuse than a legitimate psychological condition.

And it’s also convenient that ESPN was able to lock-up Gruden and get him ready for a publicity tour before announcing Kornheiser’s departure – a little too slick, wouldn’t you say?

But ESPN definitely pulled off a smooth PR move with the simultaneous announcements of Kornheiser leaving and Gruden coming aboard the MNF ship.

The network was able to strategically craft the story’s focus to be Gruden’s venture into the MNF broadcasting booth and shifted media attention away from Kornheiser leaving and another failed MNF experiment.

Excellent job by ESPN.