Monday Night Countdown Announcers cover Scott Van Pelt in the lead role for the 2023 season. Scott has been with the network for 20 years.
A native of Brookeville, Maryland, Scott began his sports journalism journey by joining a Fox affiliate channel in Washington D.C. popularly known as WTTG-TV in 1990. After working for almost five years, he moved to contribute to the Golf Channel and stayed there up to 2000.
The sports talk show host’s stop at ESPN came only in 2001. He joined the network as the channel’s midnight show ‘Sports Center’ anchor.
Van Pelt was also among the top correspondents for golf matches and has remarkably covered many tournaments including the Masters Tournament, The Open Championship, and more.
The media personality also co-hosts Tirico and Van Pelt, a radio show of the channel. In 2009, he was the solo leader of a three-hour-long Scott Vann Pelt Show.
The seven-time Emmy Award nominee has worked as a presenter of Friday Night College Football on the network and commented on golf video games.
The MN Countdown airs from 6 PM to 8 PM ET on the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. This is a pregame show which previously aired on ABC but shifted to the channel in 2006.
Crew Members Of The Show
ESPN Monday Night Football Countdown crew members include 1. Robert Griffin III (Analyst), 2. Marcus Spears (Analyst), and 3. Ryan Clark (Analyst).
Alex Smith and Larry Fitzgerald have been placed as substitute analysts and will be making multiple appearances. They will also fill in the space if any one of the above can’t make it to the studio.
Besides, we have Adam Schefter as the Senior Insider and Michelle Beisner-Buck as the feature reporter. A total of 8 members team will run the show for this season.
Marcus Spears
Spears is a former American football Defensive End who played for the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens. Marcus played on the field for 9 seasons.
After retiring from the League in 2013, he started his Television Career in 2014 when he went to become a co-host of ‘SEC Nation’. He also hosted ‘Thinking Out Loud’ a program focused on college football on SEC Network. Later, he joined ESPN’s ‘Get Up!’, ‘First Take’, and ‘NFL Live’.
From the 2023 season, Marcus has been assigned an analyst role in the pregame show of the network that will air right before the kickoff of the Monday Night games.
Robert Griffin III
Griffin is a former NFL QB and 2011 Heisman Trophy Winner who played most of the League for the Washington Redskins. He then played for the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens.
The Ravens waived Griffin on 18 January 202. The same year, he got a multi-year deal with the network in the position of analyst for the channel’s coverage of college football as well as ‘NFL Live’ and now the MN Countdown.
Ryan Clark
Clark played for LSU Tigers in college days and as a former safety in the National Football League. Being drafted by the Giants in 2002, he went to play for Washington Redskins, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Redskins again.
One of the notable things Ryan did at the end of his career is that he signed a one-day contract with the Steelers because he wanted to retire as a Steeler.
Clark joined the channel in 2015 in a deal to appear as an analyst in a number of shows including ‘SportsCenter’, Get Up!’, ‘NFL Live’, and ‘First Take’.
Hosting Duties In Monday Night Countdown
Monday Night countdown hosts include Suzy Kolber (2015-2022), Chris Berman (2006-2015), Stuart Scott (2007-2014), and Mike Tirico (1993-2001).
Scott Van Pelt is the current host of the program in the 2023 NFL season. A multi-year deal has been made between both parties.
Suzy Kolber
Kolber appended with the network in 1993. The sportscaster prior to joining the channel had worked at WPLG-TV, WCIX-TV, WPEC-TV, and some more.
The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native joined the channel as the co-host of ESPN2’s debut year shoe ‘SportNews’. She has taken and successfully completed various assignments such as NFL, X Games, Grand Slam Tennis, NASCAR Countdown, and more.
She was on the Sunday Night Football Team from 2001 to 2005 until she joined the MNF group. Her arrival marked a remarkable history in the field of cable television as the popularity of the show grew so much that it became the most-watched TV program.
Kolber has also contributed to hosting the channel’s year-round shows ‘NFL Live’, and ‘NFL Matchup’, covering NFL Draft, and anchoring on the ‘SportsCenter’ etc. She along with Chris Mortensen was aired on ‘NFL 32’ currently known as ‘NFL Insider’.
Kolber took the responsibility of the MNC show from the 2015 NFL season after Stuart Scott died on 4 January 2015. Suzy was led off by the Network in 2023 along with 19 other on-air sportscasters for the cost-cutting purpose.
After the action, she posted on Twitter “Today I join the many hard-working colleagues who have been laid off. Heartbreaking-but 27 years at ESPN was a good run. So grateful for a 38-year career! Longevity for a woman in this business is something I’m especially proud of. Next step- a project that gives back.”
Stuart Scott
Scott joined the network to fulfill their search for talent who could target and acquire young audiences. The non-former athlete initially took up the role of ‘SportsSmash’.
But later became a regular on ‘SportsCenter’ after Keith Olbermann left the anchoring seat. His style of anchoring was a hit for the platform.
He whirled in hip-hop culture and sports which made ‘a different language’. The same attribute contributed to attracting a major American-African young demographic towards sports. Stuart always brought up pop culture references in his anchoring and comments.
The use of catchphrases such as ‘Boo-yah‘, ‘Hallah‘, ‘As cool as the other side of the pillow‘, ‘And the Lord said you got to rise up!‘ etc. really revolutionized the anchoring era.
Mike Tirico
Tirico was born on 13 January 1996 in New York City and started his sports media career with the channel in 1991 when he joined as the anchor of ‘SportsCenter’.
Before that, he was the Sports Director at WTVH, a CBS-affiliated broadcaster in NY. He was also the first host to appear on ESPNews.
From 1997 to 2005, he worked as a play-by-play announcer for the network’s coverage of Thursday Night College Football, college basketball coverage, golf coverage, NBA, and more.
He was also in the MNC show when it was on ABC, then known as NFL Monday Primetime. In 2023, Tirico is associated with NBC Sports and works as a play-by-play announcer for the channel’s coverage of NFL Sunday Night Football.
Where Is Chris Berman On Monday Night Countdown?
Chris Berman Monday Night Countdown journey ended in 2017 as he stepped down from the major show after 30 years of NFL broadcasting career.
One of the most amazing sportscasters associated with the channel, Berman began in 1979 and hosted the ‘SportsCenter’ in the beginning and other evening airing of the show during the regular season. He is the only SportsCenter host from 1979 to still remain with the channel.
The longest-tenured employee of the network hosted Sunday NFL Countdown for 31 years and Monday Night for 10 years. The most heard voice of the channel is best explained as the leader of the overall broadcasting team. His book on delivering highlights is still taken as the standard to this date.
Hosting MNF and NFL Primetime was a major part of his job. Berman is also known for his anchoring styles. His catchphrases and player’s nicknames are widely popular among audiences.
“He could…go…all…the…way!”, “Back, back, back, back…Gone!”, “Tick, tick, tick, tick tick tick tick..” etc. are some famous on-game remarks and phrases made by the sportscaster. His integration of puns in the player’s names is also applaudable.
For instance, while addressing Bert Blyleven, Berman used to say “Bert Be Home Blyleven”. Now, he is still with the network but much of his workload has been lifted off.
Randy Moss Analyst Era
Randy Moss Monday Night Countdown analyst career began in 2016. The former WR joined the Network to appear in Sunday NFL & MNC.
Moss was replaced by Griffin III in 2022 as he himself desired to step back from the Monday Night pregame show and focus solely on the Sunday NFL.
Previously, he was associated with Fox Sports where he took the responsibility of an analyst for Fox Football Daily Show.
Moss played a total of 14 seasons in the League with multiple teams including the Vikings, Raiders, Patriots, Titans, and San Fransisco 49ers.
After retiring from professional football in 2013, his TV career with ESPN gave him five years to broadcast in the pregame show on Monday from which he eventually stepped back to prioritize the Sunday show.
Past Cast Members
Monday night countdown casts cover Joe Thiesman, Craig James, Phil Simms, Sterling Sharpe, Ron Jaworski, Steve Young, Michael Ervin, and more.
Some others on the list are:
- Booger McFarland – 2020 to 2022
- Louis Riddick – 2019
- Randy Moss – 2016 to 2021
- Charles Woodson – 2016 to 2018
- Matt Hasselbeck – 2016 to 2018
- Ray Lewis – 2013 to 2015
- Trent Dilfer – 2011 to 2016
- Matt Millen – 2009 to 2016
- Cris Carter – 2008 to 2015
- Mike Ditka – 2008 to 2015
- Emmitt Smith – 2007 to 2008
- Bill Parcells – 2007
- Keyshawn Johnson – 2007 to 2015
- Tom Jackson – 2006 – 2015
While being with the SEC Network, Booger McFerald used to be invited as the guest analyst on ‘Mike & Mike’ morning program and also served as the color commentator for MNF’s telecast on ESPN.
He was also a former NFL defensive tackle who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the early year and later for the Indianapolis Colts.
Similarly, Emmitt Smith got embedded with the network in 2007 and was hired to appear as an NFL pregame coverage analyst. Smith made several appearances in ‘SportsCenter’ during the regular season and also in MNC alongside Stuard Scott and Steve Young.