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Booger McFarland’s career hit a speed bump this summer when ESPN took away his Monday Night Football gig after just one season. Now, however, he’s on the rebound thanks to a consolation prize that should give McFarland a chance to work his way back into game broadcasts at ESPN or elsewhere.

ESPN is looking to make the most of ‘Monday Night Football’

It’s another year and another new lineup of announcers for ESPN on Monday Night Football beginning this weekend. The cable network announced three weeks ago that former SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy will handle play-by-play and be joined in the booth by analysts Brian Griese and Louis Riddick.

The trio is replacing Joe Tessitore and analyst Booger McFarland, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer who lasted just one season as Jason Witten’s replacement when the tight end returned to the playing field.

The announcement came after a long, futile search to land prominent names to handle the booth duties. With the next round of negotiations for network broadcast contracts ahead, ESPN and ABC were believed to be trying to put their best foot forward. They hope to impress upon the league that they’re serious about restoring Monday Night Football  to much-watch status.

There has been speculation that Disney would be interested in moving the weekly game back to ABC. That would make it more accessible to the national audience. It would also potentially help position Disney to take a larger piece of the NFL package away from competitors.

Booger McFarland is heading to the studio

ESPN has announced the back half of a job switch involving its NFL coverage. The cable network revealed last week that Louis Riddick would be one of the analysts taking the place of Booger McFarland on Monday Night Football. Now comes word that McFarland will get Riddick’s previous studio role on Mondays before the game.

At the same time, ESPN announced that both Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown will originate from a New York studio instead of game locations. McFarland will work the Monday pregame show alongside Randy Moss and host Suzy Kolber. Steve Young will work either from the studio or the game site, Awful Announcing reported.

McFarland’s role will be in addition to his duties as an in-studio analyst on Saturday college football telecasts.

This should be a better fit for Booger McFarland

Moving back into the studio environment should be a better fit for Booger McFarland. He was largely panned during his season as an analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football games, with widespread sharing of unflattering Twitter comments and Facebook memes common during the telecasts.

McFarland was a defensive co-captain as an LSU senior and drafted 15th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1999. He played eight seasons for the Bucs, winning Super Bowl 37 with them. Tampa Bay traded McFarland to the Indianapolis Colts in 2006, where he played one season before a career-ending knee injury.

Before landing with ESPN, McFarland did local sports radio in Tampa and worked as an analyst for the SEC Network.

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John Moriello

John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR.

Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls.

John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.