MNF Ad Brain Basher!

Heard the latest Monday Night Football radio advert while driving into work today. Thought the logical connection was tenuous at best, and it actually made my brain hurt. Seriously, a headache from a Monday Night Football commercial. I'm blaming Jaws.

So, the commercial voice-over starts talking about the great game that Brett Favre played and dedicated to his dad. Then the narrator tells us that we "looked over at our dad and told him we'd do something special for him." Dad's reply: get a job. You laugh, then realize it isn't a joke, and everything is awkward. Well, continues the voice-over, watch this coming Monday's match up between the Giants and Falcons, and hope that the awkwardness doesn't happen again.

Um, maybe I'm missing something. Who are the quarterbacks for the two teams featured in MNF game mentioned in this ad? The Giants have Eli face behind center while the Falcons have the face of the NFL Joey Harrington. Are either of these guys Brett Lorenzo Favre? No. Do either of these guys have a dead dad to honor? No. Are either of these guys Hall of Fame caliber QBs with gunslinger mentalities combined with cannons for arms and intellectual abilities trumped by Larry the Cable Guy? I don't think so, though the idiotic aspect may be shared by Eli face.

Ok, so maybe it isn't the similarity in the players at the Brett Favre position (an aside: wouldn't it be great if we named positions on different teams for specific players? Much in the way that colleges have endowed chairs, you could have specific starting positions known for a legendary player. For instance, the quarterback position for the Green Bay Packers should from now on be called the Brett Favre. Primary receiver position shouldn't be wide receiver, it should be called a Jerry Rice. Imagine the fun of announcing the Patriots roster and hearing, "and here's the Patriot's Vinateri lil' Stevey Gostkowski."). Maybe there some other angle here that justifies the comparison to Favre's epic MNF episode with this lame Giants pasting of the hapless Falcons. Hmmmm, white quarterbacks, ok...um, over hyped tight ends, check...a never ending platoon of fantasy killing running backs, not really, since Ward out Dunned Dunn...I don't get it.

Here's the real deal: they had no way of selling this game. What a boring, dull, awful match up. Sure, the NY football Giant fans will watch, but who else? Fantasy football owners? Thus, some marketing suit has a quandary. We need ratings to get that advertising money in order to keep paying out those gold plated matzoh balls to Tony Kornheiser, so how do we sell this stinker. Do we go the defensive mastery shown by the Giants? No, because Atlanta's offense sucks. Do we go with the prospect of Atlanta shutting down the hot-or-cold Giants offense? No, because Atlanta's defense looks average. Oh, I got it, how about a neat coaching meeting between captain sour pants versus the college gee-whiz kid who was supposed to make a certain dog fighter a better QB? YAWWWWWWWNNNN, I think "No Reservation" with Tony Bourdain is on.

Thus, instead of coming up with something that makes sense, they decide to trot out the Favre game to advertise a horrible horrible game. It doesn't make sense. Do your homework, ESPN, and come up with something inane ("Do you like Birds? Do you like Tall Men? Watch MNF!") or something that has a relationship. Awful. Awful. I blame you for my headache, ESPN!

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One other note, neat article on the Yahoo Sports "Bringin' the Noise" about the injuries affecting fantasy football. However, injuries do not equate to a Rambo movie. Rambo kills, he does not leave maimed.