ESPN Names New "MNF" Team;
Breen to Call NBA Games

(espn.com)Monday Night Football will have a new broadcast team when it debuts on ESPN in 2006.

ASA member Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser will be part of a three-man booth calling the games on Monday nights next season and Suzy Kolber and ASA member Michele Tafoya will be sideline reporters. Kolber and Tafoya both reported from the sidelines for ABC during Super Bowl XL.

"I'm just thrilled to be the next person to take the greatest franchise in television sports history forward," Tirico said on ESPN Radio Wednesday morning.

"This Monday Night Football team enthusiastically embraces our vision for sports television's signature series. We will propel MNF into a 21st century, all-day, exclusive, multi-media event that will engage fans in entirely new ways. This team will develop great chemistry," ESPN Executive Vice President John Skipper said.

In addition, Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon will take Pardon The Interruption on the road on Mondays during the football season. The shows will air from the site of ESPN's Monday Night Football games.

Also, ESPN announced that Mike Breen will be its new lead NBA play-by-play announcer, teaming with analyst and ASA member Hubie Brown for ABC telecasts beginning Feb. 12 and including the NBA Finals.

"Mike Breen is widely respected for his depth of NBA knowledge and his consummate play-by-play skill. We are very excited to provide such a spectacular forum as the NBA Finals to showcase his talents."

"We look to the future with great enthusiasm and a strong commitment to enhance the presentation of the NFL and the NBA, two of our most important sports properties," ESPN and ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer said.

Al Michaels, the play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football on ABC from 1986 through Sunday's Super Bowl in Detroit, will not return to either broadcast.