Mike Tirico’s ESPN Podcast Gets You Ready for the Monday Night Clash

Have you ever watched a match between two sports teams that you’re neu­tral towards? If you haven’t fol­lowed the teams close­ly, you could be com­plete­ly clue­less about the sto­ry­lines of the game. You might not know which play­ers are injured, how well the teams have played so far this sea­son, or any excit­ing play­er match-ups to look for­ward to. ESP­N’s Mon­day Night Foot­ball Pre­view can tell you every­thing you ever need­ed or want­ed to know about the week­ly Mon­day Night Foot­ball game in just 45 min­utes or less.

Mike Tirico previewed Monday's match-up between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs. A hot topic of discussion was about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (pictured above) and his struggles so far this season. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Mike Tiri­co pre­viewed Mon­day’s match-up between the New Eng­land Patri­ots and the Kansas City Chiefs in his ESPN pod­cast. A hot top­ic of dis­cus­sion was about Patri­ots quar­ter­back Tom Brady (pic­tured above) and his strug­gles so far this sea­son. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The pod­cast is avail­able on ESPN.com’s Pod­Cen­ter or on your mobile device, and is host­ed by ESPN com­men­ta­tor Mike Tiri­co. In the lat­est edi­tion of the pod­cast, Tiri­co pre­viewed Mon­day’s match-up between the New Eng­land Patri­ots and the Kansas City Chiefs. Tiri­co first inter­viewed for­mer NFL coach and col­or com­men­ta­tor Jon Gru­den, who pro­vid­ed a quick overview of the excit­ing match-ups to look for dur­ing the game. Tiri­co and Gru­den cov­ered every­thing that the casu­al fan need­ed to know in the first ten min­utes of the pod­cast, so peo­ple who did­n’t want to lis­ten for the full 45 min­utes could just get their infor­ma­tion and stop listening.

Tiri­co then inter­viewed Mike Reiss and Adam Teich­er, beat reporters for the Patri­ots and Chiefs, respec­tive­ly. Each reporter pro­vid­ed spe­cif­ic updates about how each team’s sea­son has gone along and about their respec­tive teams’ strengths and weak­ness­es. Tiri­co closed out the show with an inter­view with for­mer long­time Patri­ots line­backer Willie McGinest, which added a lit­tle bit of celebri­ty and intrigue to the end of the pod­cast. Tiri­co pro­vid­ed a lot of infor­ma­tion from mul­ti­ple per­spec­tives: Gru­den pro­vid­ed the basic sto­ry­lines, while Reiss and Teich­er dis­cussed in-depth sto­ry­lines and the inner work­ings of each orga­ni­za­tion. There real­ly was­n’t a point where the mate­r­i­al got too dry, as Tiri­co main­tained excel­lent ener­gy through­out the entire broadcast.

Willie McGinest, who played 12 seasons for the New England Patriots, was a guest on the Monday Night Football Preview podcast. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Willie McGinest, who played 12 sea­sons for the New Eng­land Patri­ots, was a guest on the Mon­day Night Foot­ball Pre­view pod­cast. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The MNF Pod­cast is per­fect for some­one like me who does­n’t have time to watch a two-hour pregame show. I found the pod­cast on my iPhone and I plugged my phone into my car radio so I could lis­ten dur­ing my com­mute from Hart­ford to Storrs. I rarely lis­ten to this pod­cast, but it pro­vid­ed a lot of infor­ma­tion and I’ll like­ly lis­ten to it again in the future. It was a lit­tle long, how­ev­er, and I don’t know how like­ly I would have lis­tened to it if I was­n’t already in the car. Since I lis­tened on my mobile device, there weren’t any pic­tures or polls that could keep me pulled into the con­tent of the broadcast.

Over­all, Tiri­co is a great host and he real­ly knows how to engage his audi­ence. He’s tru­ly one of ESP­N’s most under­rat­ed per­son­al­i­ties, and his pod­cast does­n’t get as much atten­tion as it should.

Leave a Reply