Column: ABC hires journalist for Monday Night Football

They've gone too far this time. ABC is putting a journalism graduate in the broadcast booth for Monday Night Football.

Oh, you hadn't heard? Probably you remember from the recent announcement that comedian Dennis Miller and former NFL quarterback Dan Fouts will be joining Al Michaels to make up the three-man broadcast team.

What you may have missed is that Miller has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Point Park College in Pittsburgh.

From Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update anchor desk to Monday Night Football, it may not be the typical career ladder for journalism majors. But, hey, if it works ...

Actually, Miller says he majored in journalism because he thought it would be easy.

"I remember seeing 'All the President's Men' and thinking Redford looked cool in his crinkled tie," Miller says. "But I never tried to get a journalist gig because when they told me they paid by the column inch, I said, 'Check please!'"

Well, Dennis, not many journalists are paid by the column inch any more. But he is accurate about Redford's crinkled tie. The ability to dress badly is actually taught in journalism schools. That, and the fact that most of us shop for clothes in thrift stores.

It is good to see that a fellow journalism grad has hit the big time. I think it shows that ABC is dedicated to some quality coverage of football, adding Miller to a staff that already includes Michaels, which ABC calls "one of television's most respected journalists."

The problem is that some snobby newsmen think that sports writers aren't really journalists at all. I think it stems from the Oscar Madison character in the "Odd Couple," in which a sports writer was depicted as a hard-drinking, scruples-lacking slob who nevertheless managed to pull off a brilliantly written column every day.

The fact that the Madison character was pretty much a dead ringer for two out of every three sports writers only served to perpetuate the stereotype. Now, however, most sports reporters work for television instead of newspapers, so they've cleaned up quite a bit.

ESPN's SportsCenter has set the new trend, copied badly by every other sports show from national networks down to the local Eyewitness News Team. They're young, brash smart-asses who will eventually get around to giving you the score if you watch long enough.

Miller, of course, will fit in fairly well with that set - except at age 46 he's not so young anymore.

If you want to get right down to it, this is a pretty fair trade between the Comedians and the Sportscasters. Miller apparently was the comedian-to-be-named-later after ESPN anchor Craig Kilbourne gave up the sports beat in order to become a comedian on the Daily Show, which he eventually left.

If regular news reporters look down on sports writers in the pecking order of journalism, then sports writers look down on television sports reporters. So do television sports reporters look down on comedians? I don't think so. In this sense, Miller's would be a lateral career move at best.

Still, it's upsetting to the sports writers.

One sports columnist - that's a sports reporter who isn't required to give you the score - had this to say about Miller's appointment to the Monday Night Football booth: "Sports has crossed too far into the realm of entertainment."

Hmmmm.

That got me scratching my head, because I couldn't figure out what else sports might be if it isn't entertainment.

Now, I'm not talking about people who actually participate in sports. If you're out shooting hoops, or bicycling over the nearest mountain pass, or even playing ping pong in the garage, then there's an athletic fitness angle to the whole endeavor.

Sitting on your rear end, a beverage in hand and chips within easy reach, watching the Redskins and the Packers on a Monday evening - that ain't athletic. Cheerleaders? What's not entertainment about cheerleaders?

In fact, the whole reason they don't drop the pretense entirely and become the World Wrestling Federation of Football is that Vince McMahon already beat them to the idea. Instead, professional football has to keep up a facade of being "serious" because otherwise it would be, well, just a huge waste of time.

Guys who can't remember the name of their congressman can, however, give you the names of third-string running backs for at least a dozen NFL teams. They have knowledge. It may be football knowledge, but at least they know something.

That's why it could be a bit intimidating to have Dennis Miller hanging around the football game. It's entirely possible that he knows the names of both his congressman and Tampa Bay's backup tight end.

And he's funny, too. In a broadcast booth that once featured Howard Cosell and Dandy Don Meredith, that might break up the stereotype once and for all.

(Barry Smith is managing editor of the Nevada Appeal.)