Complete Copy of ESPN MNF Conference Call Transcript
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August 29, 2013 ESPN Monday Night Football Conference Call Transcript Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Lisa Salters and Producer Jay Rothman Discuss 2013 MNF Season ESPN conducted a media conference call today with the Monday Night Football producer Jay Rothman and commentators Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Lisa Salters to discuss the 2013 NFL season. ESPN kicks off the 44th year of MNF on September 9 with a doubleheader: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Redskins (7 p.m. ET) and Houston Texans vs. San Diego Chargers (10:15 p.m.). Full audio replay; MNF TV schedule and photos). Transcript: JAY ROTHMAN: Hello, everybody. We're extremely excited to kick off the 44th season of Monday Night Football. Also, (we’re) very excited to kick off our second year of the team of Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Lisa Salters. They had a terrific first year together, and we're only looking to improve on our success from last year. It's a group that works extremely hard, extremely passionate, love what we do, and we work hard to be the best NFL watch every week. We don't get to play in the postseason, so every week is the Super Bowl for us regardless of the match-up on paper. This group gives it all we have until the end of the fourth quarter, and (we’re) really proud of what we did last year, and as I said, looking to get better this year. A couple of new exciting things for us: Producing MNF will be in brand new state-of-the-art mobile units, so any of you that might be coming to a MNF game, please let Bill or myself know. We'd be happy to give you a tour. They are unbelievable, state-of-the-art. The country's largest mobile unit, technically advanced like no other, and just tremendous working conditions for us to do our jobs in and bring MNF to fans each and every Monday night, so we're excited about that. We also have a new open this year. We've been working for seven months with Hollywood director Peter Berg, who has directed Friday Night Lights among other films, a terrific talent, and have collaborated with him to present a new open for Monday night, which we're excited about. It's a departure from any musical videos that we've done or any other networks have done for that matter, and it's really a celebration of the 44-year history of Monday night with pop culture and all of the legendary broadcasters that have brought you the game. We're excited about that to open up our coverage. We have a handful of dynamic innovations in our game coverage this year, which I won't bore everybody with. You'll get to see it. It's a big toolbox that we have that we're excited about. Maybe one of the things I'm most excited about in the spirit of doing the right thing is we have a little segment we kicked off last year called the Gruden Grinder. It's a lot of fun we have with Jon in terms of the off-the-field player of the game. It's a segment that gained a lot of traction last year with fans. One in particular who we met along the way happened to be on Veterans Day last year in Pittsburgh when we did a game, we met a 23-year-old Marine sergeant who was blown up in Afghanistan, spent a year in Walter Reed and almost lost his life, and we had him speak to our team the morning of the game on Veterans Day to help us deliver some meaning to Veterans Day, and it wasn't just another check-the-box initiative, if you will. Zach (Stinson) touched us like no one has. In speaking with our group at the same time, one of the things that he shared with us was what a fan of the Gruden Grinder he was and how passionate he was, so one of the things we're doing this year is we've recruited Zach to help us each and every week with our candidates. He's a great young man, a 23-year-old man, married with a small child, and as I said, disabled. He's from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, so he's going to be our little behind-the-scenes guy to help us out each and every week. We have, as I said, a handful of innovations we're excited about along with solid, great coverage, and a great talent in Mike, Jon and Lisa, and we're fired up to kick off the season with the Eagles and Redskins. MIKE TIRICO: Good morning, everybody. I'll be brief so you can get to Jon and any of us with any questions you all might have. It's hard to believe this is year eight for me and for us on this project. There is still nothing like it. There is still a special chill that you get when you hear that Monday Night Football music as you're waiting to go on the air. I have been lucky enough to see that open that Jay was talking about that Peter Berg directed, and it really is a timeline of the lives of a lot of us who are in our 30s or 40s or even 50s who have grown up with MNF. It's exciting to be a part of something in a day and age where it's a microwave generation and things seem to change every five minutes. It's so nice to be a part of a place a lot of American sports fans have come to week in, week out in the fall for four and a half decades. Year five with Jon; we talk all the time; I've said it before, I'm blessed to work with some of the best people as analysts in the business, and there is no one the equal of Jon in terms of preparing the rest of our group, and I don't just mean announcers. I mean everyone from the people in the tape room to our camera operators, to our production assistants, and it helps make us better. It's a privilege to be on a team that Jon has coached now for his fifth season along with Lisa who's been a great friend and worked NBA with me for many years, as well. We're all excited to be with Jay and Chip and everybody else and look forward to the schedule and look forward to helping you out with any questions along the way, whether it's today or somewhere down the line this year. JON GRUDEN: I'd like to echo a lot of the same things that Mike said. I appreciate the nice comments. Mike is the all-time Gruden Grinder. I'm really glad it's football season. I'm proud to be with this MNF team, Lisa and Mike, two real pros that obviously help me tremendously. I think we have some interesting match-ups we're excited to get to. Thank you very much for being on the phone with us today. LISA SALTERS: This will be my second season of MNF, and I can honestly say that I have never missed an assignment and a group of colleagues as much as I did in the off-season. Like Jay said, we don't have postseason, and it was eight months before we got to see each other again, and I just couldn't wait to be with Jon, who's a great teacher. I tell everybody all the time when we're sitting in a room and going over highlights, it's like we're on his team; we're getting ready for a game week. And Mike, I've been working with Mike for many years, and I still think he's the best announcer in the business. Jay and Chip, the best production team, producer/director out there, and I can't wait to get it going for year two. Q. For Jon, the opener, Redskins-Eagles figures to feature two of the more intriguing offenses this year, and offenses that are probably pretty reflective of what's going on in college football. I wonder if the trickle-off that we're seeing where college football is influencing the NFL is something you think is here to stay, or is it a faddish thing, because it seems like the river is flowing the other way now and college football is influencing the pros. GRUDEN: That's the million-dollar question. I don't think college football is penetrating the NFL, I think college football is in the NFL, and I think it's here to stay. I see a lot of high school football. The game of high school football is different. Players are playing it differently, wide open, no huddle, spread systems, and that's what's in college football. That's how we're training coaches and players. It's a big part of the National Football League. When you watch RG3 and the Washington Redskins, you're going to see some similarities to what RG3 did at Baylor, and when you watch Michael Vick play with Chip Kelly, you're going to see a lot of things we saw at Oregon in the last four or five years. But I think it's here to stay.