FanHouse TonyKornheiser

Good news, Jim Zorn supporters: the head coach isn't the problem in Washington. It's the shoddily assembled roster, most of which is littered with players who either a) don't understand their roles, or b) can't physically execute the offense.

That's the word according to ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski, who said as much during Friday's appearance on Tony Kornheiser's DC-area radio show.

Via the Sports Bog:

It's been 24 hours since the Redskins lost to the Chiefs. In that time, Jim Zorn has been stripped of play-calling duties, Bingo guru Sherm Lewis has been given the responsibility, and John Riggins is hastily producing another backwoods manifesto.

While we wait for the inevitable, Tony Kornheiser used his radio show to relay his encounter with 'Skins owner Dan Snyder during Sunday's fiasco. Mr. Tony had the pleasure of sitting in the owner's box (as much as 60 minutes of JV high school football can be deemed pleasurable).

Via the Sports Bog:

BRISTOL, Conn. -- Everyone here at ESPN headquarters is taking pains to say that replacing Tony Kornheiser with Jon Gruden in the Monday Night Football booth is not an indictment of Kornheiser's work as an announcer. But in the next breath, everyone then talks about how great they expect Monday Night Football to be now that Gruden is a part of it.

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Brett Favre isn't very popular with Green Bay Packers fans right now. Turns out, he might not be that popular with the Packers players either. Nick Barnett, for instance, stated to an ESPN camera recently that he wants a little piece of the old gunslinger. Which proves the point that as irritating as Favre is -- and he is -- he's still going to make for some fun teevee watching when the Packers and Vikings meet for the first time on Monday night in Week 4. At least provided that Tony Kornheiser can't get near the announcing booth. Via NESW Sports.

Jon Gruden is the new Tony Kornheiser. Just about everybody not working for NFL Network is cool with that.

Mr. Tony the columnist and Pardon the Interruption co-host was nothing like Mr. Tony the third wheel in the Monday Night Football booth, and his departure -- whether on his own terms or otherwise -- is a welcome change. Before ESPN named Gruden to replace Kornheiser, NFL Network had similar plans: they wanted Chucky to move into Cris Collinsworth's seat (Cris graduated to Sunday Night Football after John Madden retired) and work alongside Bob Papa on the eight Thursday night games.

Last week, Steelers linebacker and Super Bowl champion James Harrison told the media that he had no interest in being honored, along with his teammates, at the White House. Not because he's a McCain-Palin guy -- Harrison skipped out on the trip in 2006 when George W. Bush was in office -- but because ... well, I have no idea.

"If you want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers, invite us when we don't win the Super Bowl. As far as I'm concerned, he [Obama] would've invited Arizona if they had won," he said.

So, yeah, I'm not following the logic, but I don't think Harrison was trying to make a larger philosophical point. Instead, he used a lot of words to say: "I don't want to go." And had he just stated as much, that would have been that.

Jon Gruden made national headlines yesterday when he replaced Tony Kornheiser on ESPN's Monday Night Football. Kornheiser, of course, "stepped down" (as MDS, Ryan and I noted last night, that may or may not be extremely convenient) from his role in the booth with very little noise aside from the original announcement.

All in all, it was a pretty smooth transition. That is until SI's Peter King dropped a bombshell in his Tuesday morning version of Monday Morning Quarterback, teased via his Twitter account.

The FanHouse Podcast: Because bloggers are much sexier on the phone.

In Episode 23, FanHouse's Michael David Smith joins Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson to talk about Tony Kornheiser's departure from Monday Night Football. Jon Gruden now has the gig, but is it a one-year deal? And is there a chance that should Gruden return to coaching in 2010, Matt Millen is next in line? Good times.

The conversation also touches on Malcolm Gladwell, who thinks the Lions had nothing to lose by featuring the no-huddle during their run to 0-16 last season, as well as the latest on Brett Favre. Naturally.

Tony Kornheiser gets very mad when I sit in his chair, pick up his personalized bobblehead from the studio set and shake the doll. In fact, even when I don't have the privilege of sometimes subbing for him on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, he seems to dislike me -- maybe because I have a full head of hair or, more likely, because I'm intellectually beneath him.

That's OK. I am grateful anyway.

I thank him because he did the sportswriting profession proud in his three years on Monday Night Football. Kornheiser technically isn't a sportswriter anymore, having escaped the dying newspaper business like many of us, but when he was hired for one of the most high-profile assignments in sports television, he was dismissed by many viewers and critics as a columnist painfully out of his league.

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ESPN has announced that former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden will replace Tony Kornheiser on the network's Monday Night Football broadcasts.