Remembering Dennis Miller, 25 years after Monday Night Football

Leadership often means taking risks because it’s easy to do the popular thing. Executives are paid to be visionaries. Sometimes it’s a touchdown. Sometimes it’s a pick-6. In the history of America’s most popular sport, there wasn’t a bigger broadcasting Hail Mary than Dennis Miller entering the Monday Night Football booth.

On a scale of 1 to 10—with 10 being maximum shocking—this registered at a 15. The fall of 2000 marked the beginning of Miller’s calamitous run on ABC’s prestigious property. In hindsight, it was a miracle that Miller lasted two years. He had a longer stint on MNF than Joe Namath, who was ousted after one season in 1985.

There’s no Monday morning quarterbacking regarding Miller. Everyone immediately reacted the same way. What? Huh? Why? Miller, a comedian best known for his snarky work as an anchor for Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment, had zero qualifications for the job.

Sometimes I wonder if I only imagined Dennis Miller being in the Monday Night Football booth. Nope. It was all too real. pic.twitter.com/wEWQjqiJHO

— Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) July 7, 2020

And yet, he was given this incredible job as a top football analyst. The network was hellbent on recreating the magic of Monday Night Football’s glory days and thought Miller would be the ultimate game-changer. Miller was famous for his quick wit and smarts. He was discovered by Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL and a TV kingmaker.

If the goal was to create buzz, it worked. Dennis Miller was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and TV Guide. This was the early days of the internet. This was a time when being on the front of magazines mattered. The SI cover asked the question: “Can Dennis Miller Save Monday Night Football?” In the story, ABC Sports president Howard Katz said, “It may not work. We may find out that this is a bad idea. But I love taking the risk.”

Monday Night Football play-by-play voice Al Michaels expressed confidence in Miller, and Miller expressed confidence in himself by telling SI, “I sit with my friends and do Mystery Science Theater 3000 with the football. Don’t you all? When you watch the game with your friends, it’s not exactly like a Christian Science reading room. You call the announcer on his bulls— and say, ‘Christ! He’s sucking up to the league. I can’t believe he won’t take a stand on that!’ Well, I’m going to take a stand on that. If that gets me whacked, that gets me whacked.”

Well, Miller was right about that last part.

🏈On September 4, 2000, Dennis Miller began his two-season stint as a ‘Monday Night Football’ commentator pic.twitter.com/KGtjMEJRs0

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) September 5, 2024

Miller’s regular-season Monday Night Football debut was Sep. 4, 2000. The game was exciting, as the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams edged the Denver Broncos 41-36. Miller was not. Jon Friedman of CBS.MarketWatch wrote: “For a comic who makes his living on the cutting edge, many of Miller’s comments were stunningly dated. Miller joked about Nehru jackets in anchorman Al Michaels’ closet.”

ABC News and The New York Times noticed that Miller toned down his schtick from the preseason but still used obscure material such as “ a reference to ancient Rome’s founding twins, and the occasional bizarre comment — “Schlereth has been scoped more than a redneck abducted by aliens,” about oft-operated-on Broncos lineman Mark Schlereth.”

Richard Sandomir of The New York Times described Miller’s contributions as “Mediocre. Maybe not even necessary.”

If social media existed, the internet might have melted down. Virtually everyone agreed that Dennis Miller was a poor fit. Still, ABC kept him out there, hoping either that he would improve or that public opinion would change. What was worse is that people weren’t even inclined to hate-watch. In Miller’s first season, MNF ratings tanked. Was it all Miller’s fault? Probably not, but his presence didn’t provide the expected boost. By the end of 2001, Miller, along with analyst Dan Fouts, were fired. Normalcy returned when Monday Night Football hired John Madden to pair with Michaels.

On an appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show, Miller said, “The football thing was fun for me. I was in the middle of a maelstrom and I just decided not to pay attention to it because for me, getting hired was a freakish act of nature. I had never gone to a football game. … I remember the day I heard that John Madden had quit Fox (and) I remember calling Dan Fouts that afternoon and saying, ‘Get ready babe, we’re getting whacked.’ … I don’t have any hard feelings.”

So what lessons are there to be learned from the failed Dennis Miller experiment? First, your typical football fan is a nuts-and-bolts viewer. They don’t want someone shoehorning in archaic references with their sports. They don’t want jokes unless they naturally fit with the broadcasts. They don’t want comedians. UFC commentator Joe Rogan is the exception that proves the rule. He’s accepted in the mixed-martial arts world because he began as a post-fight interviewer in 1997, long before the sport went mainstream. Plus, Rogan has a pure love and appreciation for the sport that shines through. Miller seemed more interested in promoting himself and his sense of humor.

Second, viewers won’t connect with anything that seems like a gimmick. In 2006, when ESPN took over Monday Night Football, Tony Kornheiser was brought in. While Kornheiser remains an accomplished TV star from Pardon the Interruption, he was never fully embraced by viewers and looked uncomfortable in the booth.

Today, ESPN offers alt-broadcasts such as the ManningCast, which is more casual. Experimentation is encouraged. If this option had been available in 2000, perhaps Dennis Miller could have started there and eventually joined the main broadcast. Or maybe it was doomed to fail.

Leadership took a risk, and the result was an all-time broadcasting fumble.