So Did Kornheiser Really Quit Because Of Travel?

As the munchkins and knuckleheads sing Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead! in the wake of the stunning news that Tony Kornheiser has exited ESPN’s Monday Night Football after three seasons on the job, we can’t help but wonder whether the decision was truly related to a 2009 travel schedule that Kornheiser claims would have forced him to fly, or whether it arose from the fact that: (1) Kornheiser wasn’t really suited for the job; and (2) Jon Gruden seems to be. In the release issued by ESPN, Kornheiser specifically cited a slate of games that, in his view, would have made continuous bus travel impossible. So let’s look at this year’s schedule, and compare it to last year’s. For 2009, the KornCruiser would have gone from New England to Miami to Dallas to Minnesota to Miami to San Diego to Washington to New Orleans to Denver to Cleveland to Houston to New Orleans to Green Bay to San Francisco to Washington to Chicago. We lack the time or the desire to calculate the total miles; the key point in our view is that the 2009 schedule entails three full-blown cross-country trips: Miami to San Diego, San Diego to Washington, and San Francisco to Washington. In 2008, Kornheiser went from Green Bay to Dallas to San Diego to Pittsburgh to New Orleans to Cleveland to New England to Tennessee to Washington to Arizona to Buffalo to New Orleans to Houston to Carolina to Philly to Chicago. Like 2009, that’s three full-blown cross-country trips: San Diego to Pittsburgh, Washington to Arizona, and Arizona to Buffalo. Kornheiser arguably had his toughest travel stretch during his first year on the job, ping-ponging late in the year from Seattle to Charlotte/Jacksonville for two games before heading all the way back to Seattle, followed by a cross-country trip back to Philadelphia. Then there’s the fact that ESPN could have found a way to accommodate Kornheiser, if he believed that there was a game or two that he couldn’t attend due to travel. The fact that he didn’t ask and/or they didn’t offer speaks volumes, in our view. So, yeah, we tend to think that the supposedly increased travel stretch is cover for the reality that ESPN understands Kornheiser wasn’t really all that good -- and that Gruden could be a lot better. Regardless of the real reason, plenty of fans are happy. One key employee of an NFL team’s front office described the situation like this: “Thank God Kornheiser is done with Monday Night Football. That guy was a total moron. He knows nothing about the game and his lack of knowledge came across every week. It was embarrassing just having to listen to his idiotic comments. Who knows how good Gruden will be? Time will tell, but anyone not having the name Tony Kornheiser will be a huge upgrade.” We don’t think Kornheiser was quite so bad, but maybe we just got numb to him. That said, we think that Gruden could be the next Madden.