Earlier this year, ESPN announced that former NFL Pro Bowl quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III would be joining the regular cast of Monday Night Countdown in advance of the network’s showcase broadcast each week. Griffin III, who is also a college football analyst for the network, was only one of the additions to the Monday night lineup, with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman famously coming on board to anchor the game broadcast from the booth. Before the Week 1 clash between the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, Griffin III wasted no time leaving his imprint on the proceedings, but perhaps not in the way you might expect for a typical pregame analyst.
Instead, ESPN arranged a race between Griffin III and an actual seahawk that was narrated by fellow analyst Booger McFarland.
We take back everything negative we’ve ever said about pregame shows pic.twitter.com/JK6eiZINp7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 12, 2022
First of all, this is riveting television and it is captured well by the ESPN cameras. Griffin III can still run, which probably helps the aesthetic, and Booger is highly amusing in his running commentary. By the end, Griffin III even manages to get in a joke about playing for the Cowboys after the unfortunate injury to Dak Prescott, and the clip really has everything.
Monday Night Countdown probably can’t replicate this every week, but it was a good segment. As Awful Announcing notes in the video above, perhaps pregame shows aren’t all bad.
