Here’s Why Bringing Hank Williams Jr. Back on ESPN’s ‘Monday Night Football’ Is a Bad Idea

Ryan Berenz
6 Comments
Hank Williams Jr. Monday Night Football
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Hank Williams Jr.'s Monday night party is back on for ESPN

On Monday, ESPN announced that Hank Williams Jr. is back to do a new rendition of “All My Rowdy Friends”—you know, the one with the age-old query “Are you ready for some football?”—for its Monday Night Football intro theme beginning in September. [Update: Williams will be joined by Florida Georgia Line and Jason Derulo, so ESPN is making an effort to appeal to everyone (or no one).]

Apparently, ESPN thinks it’s 1991. Also, ESPN must believe viewers have forgotten why the network kicked Williams and his rowdy friends out of the house in 2011:

It’s not as if Williams has suddenly seen the light and deserves a second shot at this. His website sells merchandise depicting the confederate flag, which seems at odds with the image the NFL and ESPN like to project. Perhaps ESPN’s trying to appeal to the audience that embraces those ideas and images. That audience is certainly big enough—big enough even to elect a U.S. president.

Politics aside, Williams’ MNF act had grown stale a decade before ESPN dropped it. Like Chris Berman, it was just one of those things the network held onto much longer than it should have. Bringing it back is not forward thinking by the Worldwide Leader.

But there’s a much bigger problem for ESPN, and it won’t be solved by Bocephus.

ESPN is struggling with bloated TV sports rights fees and cord-cutters who are dropping their traditional pay TV packages and the $9 per month ESPN commands. Rehiring Williams is even more baffling in light of ESPN’s latest round of layoffs.

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Is Monday Night Football even worth ESPN’s investment? MNF used to be the NFL’s primetime showcase, but that role’s since been taken over by NBC’s Sunday Night Football, which also gets the added benefit of a flexible schedule. There’s also Thursday Night Football on CBS/NBC/NFL Network/Amazon Prime to further dilute the NFL’s primetime pool.

MNF is now an afterthought, necessary viewing only for fans of the participating teams, fantasy football addicts or the few who can tolerate Jon Gruden. And ESPN’s schedule is set in stone, so if that game in December has two teams with five wins between them, I’m probably going to spend my Monday night endlessly browsing Netflix instead.

Unless ESPN can resurrect Chris Farley to stand in for Williams. I’d totally watch that.

Monday Night FootballNFL FootballHank Williams Jr.



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  1. P

    PurpleHammer

    I'm sure ESPN would love MNFs numbers to be like they were in 1991, but it's the author of this who is out of touch, not, surprisingly, ESPN for once. ESPN went on a politically correct tear and has exacerbated it's loss of viewership due to cord cutters by driving away sports fans with nonsense like the firing of Hank, Jr. all those years ago. The decision to bring him back is at least a step in the right direction. Oh, and Ryan, yes, MNF is essential to ESPN. They need to air some actual NFL games to have credibility. That you would even question this calls into question your understanding of what drives eyes to the channel.

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  2. G

    GreenToast

    You said it TV Guide. What moron at ESPN thinks his song will bring more viewers? Just ugh with this and to think they laid off good sports talent

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    PurpleScooter

    You can not undo history, no matter how many monuments you tear down, no matter how many confederate flags you burn, history is history, and I happen to love Hank jr.

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  4. O

    OrangeFish

    Perhaps the condescending elitist attitude displayed by the poser talking heads, who think they are journalists, similar to the elitist attitude displayed by you, has turned off the regular red state audience, many of whom have no problem with what Hank, Jr. said and are tired of the PC police.

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    1. R

      RedCupcake

      Absolutely right. ESPN's slide into PC started with dumping Jr, and has continued ever since -- I quit watching them a long time ago. Most of their Monday night schedule is dull dull dulll. Just like Berenz.

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    OrangeDog

    Well it look like monday night football will be off my list.

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