SULLIVAN: The problem with “Monday Night Football” is not the announcers—although some of them have been fairly hideous—but the saturation of football on TV.

I like Tony Kornheiser even if he has a face made for radio. He is about as ugly as Howard Cosell but a lot funnier. Cosell was more erudite, but Tony K. is quicker with the quip and less full of himself.

Football has peaked as a sport. There is just too much of it and the games are getting more boring. For every Eli Manning last second touchdown, you have another 9-0 Jacksonville-Steeler game.

When “Monday Night Football” premiered it was the only prime time fall sports show in the nation. It was a novelty for years, and Cosell was the man in the right place at the right time. He also did that with Ali and the 1972 Munich Olympics. It is better to be lucky than good; Cosell was lucky.

He has been dead now for 11 years, but people still remember him. I worked one summer in his building as a handyman and went to his apartment once to carry his luggage. He was a good tipper, and we talked in his football voice the whole elevator ride. I was doing Howard as Howard was just being Howard, and we both got a good laugh out of it.

Kornheiser is a good announcer and a fine choice for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.” The problem is not in the booth but on the grass and Monday nights are not what they once were. There is just too much damn football on the tube.

HOLLANDER: When “Monday Night Football” hired comedian Dennis Miller for their broadcast booth in 2000, John Madden was asked about the growing need to mix sports and entertainment. He said, “That’s funny, I always thought the game itself was the entertainment.” Me too.

Yes, there’s a lot of football on television (I’m not sure why that’s a bad thing), but there’s only one NFL game that’s not on Sunday.  That’s “Monday Night Football.” If you love football, Monday night still reigns as a football fan’s bonus fantasy: One more game, prime time, the next day after a full NFL Sunday. And its been that way since it’s brilliant inception on Sept. 21, 1970. 

Two key elements further extended the novelty of the original “Monday Night Football”: (1) Roone Arledge’s choice of Chet Forte’s spectacle-oriented studio direction and (2) Arledge’s unleashing of Howard Cosell. 

Cosell played the multiple roles of provocateur, scholar, dramatist and journalist like no one ever before and no one yet to follow. He did not pretend to be a jock with inside knowledge but reveled in his outsider status. He analyzed from a cerebral and investigative point of view. The challenges he made to colleagues in the booth or players on the field were backed by intellectual heft, not packaged in trendy snark. Love him or hate him, the man could make a game of marbles sound like a Jason vs. the Argonauts epic struggle. Love him or hate him, Cosell was compelling.

When they first announced it, I thought Kornheiser was an inspired choice for ESPN’s Monday night booth. He offers smart, funny and hip commentary when pitted against fellow sports writer Michael Wilson on ESPN’s sublime daily back-and-forth “Pardon the Interruption.” To my great disappointment, Kornheiser on Monday night has traded in his witty self-deprecation for obnoxious self-importance. ESPN didn’t or shouldn’t have hired Kornheiser to offer football fans his analysis of Bill Cowher’s game plan or Tiki Barber’s decision to “cut it inside.” What the hell does he know about that? Joe Theismann’s got credibility when it comes to breaking down X’s and O’s, but Kornheiser? He’s the wordsmith. He’s the “color” commentator. He’s there to offer humor, wax philosophical and agitate political, not analyze the play.

What do you think goes through Theismann’s head when Kornheiser offers his two cents on what just happened at the line of scrimmage? The same thing that goes through mine: “Who gives a shit what he thinks?”

SULLIVAN: Kornheiser is nervous with his new gig. He’s got the “MNF” yips so give him some time. He grows on you. I didn’t like his newspaper column—until one day, suddenly, I did. I thought he was a jackass with his sports show, but eventually, I got this guy’s humor.

Yes, he was flat the first week. He needs to come out swinging like Cosell in the future. Do you remember one of Cosell’s first games (Giants vs. Eagles) when he got drunk and threw up on Don Meredith’s boots and had to leave the booth at halftime? At least Kornheiser hasn’t done that—yet.

Kornheiser needs to bitch slap that chuckle head Joe Theisman and carve out his own niche. Given his track record he probably will. And if he does, maybe “MNF” would become something worth watching. The problem with so much football on the tube is over-saturation and mediocrity in the league. The game needs a wild civilian announcer and Kornheiser is football’s best hope.

HOLLANDER: Kornheiser would regain my full respect if he got blotto and puked on Theismann. That would be an entertaining homage to the great Cosell. Or how about bringing back some of Meredith’s cowboy charm when he used to sing “Turn out the lights the party’s over …” or remarked, on-air, that he was “high” in Denver? Back in the day, the talk around the water cooler come Tuesday morning would be either what happened in the game or what was said by Cosell or Meredith.

We need to restore “event” status to “Monday Night Football.” It’s not just another game. It’s a prime-time slot for the state of NFL football to be reviewed, celebrated and treated as television art. Kornheiser should defer to Theismann on football analysis and use his air time to raise deeper or global questions about the game at hand and the game in general. He needs to extract and embellish the human drama within the game. Snide, haphazard answers to the juvenile “Tony, Tony, Tony” audience question segment just doesn’t cut it. 

I don’t agree that the quality of NFL football is mediocre. Unlike MLB or the NBA, NFL players cannot loaf or take the night off. If they do, they either get cut, replaced or severely injured. These guys play once a week, no contract is guaranteed and every player is expendable.  Korhneiser needs to bring that type of intensity to his game. Cosell brought it to every word he uttered.