Monday Night Football Crew Booth Losing Ron Jaworski In 2012

Earlier today, ESPN released the news that they will be making a change in Monday Night Football for 2012. The network will move Ron Jaworski out of the booth and back into the studio. Jaworski will reportedly get a lot more face time in a variety of other ways, but the big news really is the decision to go with a two-man booth of Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden for Monday Night Football.

SB Nation's Joel Thorman likes the move based in part on the fact that Jaws does better work breaking down film explaining a lot of intricacies, which is something better handled in the studio than during live game action. I would actually disagree to a certain extent. While he can do a lot more without live action interrupting, I really enjoyed some of his breakdowns of the game action as soon as plays were over. While he had to simplify things due to the nature of the live broadcast, I thought he brought a lot more to the table than Jon Gruden.

I don't think Gruden is a particularly "bad" announcer, but he uses way too many cliches and seems to love everybody. He claims not to want to go back into coaching, but the way he avoids criticism would make me think otherwise. This strikes me as a sort of dumbing down of the booth with the removal of Jaworski.