mnf omg

So I have Monday Night Football on in the background tonight as I'm puttering around my apartment. I'm not a diehard or anything, but I participate in a weekly football pool (of the old-school, non-suicide variety), and more often than not, the results of the Monday night game will have a bearing on the weekly winner. Anyhow, I'm half-listening, when all of a sudden, Madden and Michaels start talking about the Tampa Bay center, John Wade, and his sweaty ass.

I kid you not. Apparently Brad Johnson, the Bucs quarterback, is, in Michaels' words, "a fastidious person." He changes his socks and shoes at half-time, you see. And the fact that his center sweats quite a bit causes him some dismay, I guess. In addition to several tight camera shots of the butt in question, we have one shot that starts on John Wade's ass, and pans back to include Johnson keeping warm on the sidelines. Sweet mother of pearl. All while Michaels explains that Johnson is thinking of wearing the gloves he would normally reserve for inclement weather. And if that's not enough, the five-minute story on the center's sweaty ass is capped by a visit to sideline reporter Lisa Guerrero, who happily informs us that she will "keep an eye on the situation down here." Uhhhh...the situation?! Wade's a big guy, he's running around, it's fairly warm, so he's sweating.

If there's any doubt in anyone's mind why MNF has been on a slow decline towards oblivion, this should remove it. Michaels is white bread, but I can't stand Madden. Any contribution he had to make to football is long gone, and he's gotten into the really horrible habit of saying obvious things three times rather than anything insightful once. You know how they say that truly great players make their teammates better? Madden is the one announcer who makes the people around him worse.