Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [305]
FRED GAUDELLI:
John was fuckin’ pissed. It was the first time I ever heard him like that, man. He called me and said, “I got a call today from Bodenheimer, and he said they didn’t know what they were going to do with their talent and production teams. He said they felt like they had two great teams.” And he paused, and I said, “Yeah, and what do you think?” And he goes, “Forget them.” Now, when George placed that call telling John he had two great production teams and didn’t know what he was going to do, guess who was sitting in John’s office? Dick Ebersol.
They actually said, “We have two great production teams, now what are we going to do?” That’s like tomfoolery! That’s like, you gotta be kidding me, man. You’re talking about the greatest television analyst who ever lived, and may ever live, and you can’t decide what you want to do?! I remember I got a call the day it was going down from George saying, “Hey, look, we’re losing Monday Night Football; I just want you to know you always have a job at ESPN. I can’t tell you what that job is going to be, but we’re not going to let you go. You’re going to be fine.” He said, “I can’t say that for everyone on your show, but you and Drew [my director] are going to be fine.” Okay, great. So a month later I get another call from George and this time he says, “Hey, Fred, Mark and I are meeting with Al Michaels today, and we’re going to tell him that you’re not producing Monday Night Football after this year.” I said, “All right.” He then said, “Mark Shapiro will be in contact with you.”
AL MICHAELS:
They’d given Mark the deed to the ranch in terms of production and he’d already determined that Jay Rothman and Chip Dean would be producing and directing MNF. George always felt uncomfortable dealing with anything that we would term the creative side. It was as if, if it had to do with content, with editorial, with production, he just acquiesced to Shapiro. “Capitulated” would be a better word. I always thought he should have given himself more credit.
MARK SHAPIRO:
This is a defining moment. ESPN, the biggest brand in sports unarguably, succeeds in getting the biggest property in sports. George walks into my office with one of those toy semi trucks with Monday Night Football on it and gives me a hug. So I have to think, “Who are we going to give this to?” To Jay, who’s been toiling for, like, thirteen years as our guy, or are we going to go with Freddie, who was working over at ABC. When Freddie went over to ABC Sports, things changed. Fred was not an ESPN guy anymore. Fred became one of “them,” the guys who frowned on the cable guys.
Sandy Montag called me and said, “You’re making the wrong decision. Gaudelli is better than Rothman.” And I know that was the general consensus, but I said, “Look, I think Jay’s better. Al Michaels controls his guys. Jay tells it like it is. He would beat the shit out of Theismann. But even if their talents are even, maybe Freddie’s a little better, maybe Jay’s a little better, it’s pretty much even. Okay? I’m going to go with the guy who’s loyal.”
FRED GAUDELLI:
Mark Shapiro called me and said, “I want to meet with you,” and I said, “All right, fine.” He made me come to a restaurant near his house at, like, seven in the morning on July 4, and he walks in and says, “Look, you can have any job you want in this company other than Monday Night Football. Is there anything you really like?” But before I can answer, he asks, “How about management? Would you do management? Would you come in and would you run all of college sports?” I told him, “I’m not interested in management.” Then he says, “How about if you come in and be the executive producer of NASCAR?” I said, “I have no affinity for that sport, and I don’t want to acquire one.” So he’s, like, “All right, just give me one. Just tell me what it is.” I said, “You know Mark, I don’t really know, there’s not a lot left.