October 9, 2025 • 7 mins
"What happens when you drop a cerebral comedian into the most iconic sports broadcast in America?" In this wildly entertaining and nostalgia-packed episode of The Ben and Skin Show, hosts Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray (with Ben Rogers still out sick) revisit one of the strangest and most controversial experiments in sports broadcasting history: Dennis Miller joining the Monday Night Football booth. From obscure jazz drummer references to Shakespearean rants during Tom Brady’s first preseason game, Miller’s stint in the booth was either genius or madness—depending on who you ask. The crew breaks down the cultural moment, the behind-the-scenes drama, and the ripple effects that followed.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nine one point one the Eagle. Don't forget nine inch
nails tickets, got to be listening to win. Gotta have
an iHeart APT Now. This segment right here is brought
to you by Franklin Frankel. Two one four three three
three thirty three thirty three. Those are our guys. Love
them Frankel and Frankel. They've been partners with the show
since two thousand and eight and they take care of people.
Between Mark, Scott and Gene, they have ninety years of
(00:22):
experience getting you the money you deserve, deserve when you
get hurt in a wreck or on the job site.
Franklin Frankel. But right now it's time for this.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Now is cool.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Around the sports KTD, fun twins as all the sports.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Okay, So way back in
the day, someone are my good friend, good friend and
good friend Texas Carter sent me this videos. Check it out, dude.
It's like twenty minute on Mini doc and when Dennis
Miller got into the Monday Night at Football Booth and
it was awesome. It was pretty pretty great. Put some
audio from it for a second.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I do remember you remember this.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
When this happened.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I do because it was.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean, I was around eleven or twelve, so I
knew it was going on, and I wanted to be
a play by play broadcaster growing, so I was like,
you know, followed this crap. I'm one of those people
who does care who's broadcasting the games each week. Like
there're still in that way. So, you know, back then
in the nineties, though, the cable boom had happened, so
you have dents in the ratings for NBC and Fox
and ABC and CBS. The networks were kind of fighting
(01:25):
that off. By two thousand, Monday Night Football's ratings were declining, which,
since sounds crazy now, one reason they were declining is
because so many young men were watching Monday Night Raw
on WFA test That is the Rock, that is Stone
called Steve Austin, That's Kine, that's the Undertaker, and it
was Edgy. Okay. At the time, Rick Flair and hul
(01:45):
Cogan were at WCW and it was a little different.
This was Edgy over here, and it was good.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm so interested in that as a cultural phenomenon, but
I care so little about it in terms of like wrestling, Yeah,
but I'm interested in the cultural impact and how for sure,
especially people y'all's age. The way I see you guys
talk about it is fascinating to me.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Okay, So they hire or they make a call to
Don Oldmeyer. Donaldmyer had just left at NBC. Donald Meyer
is the guy who you probably know because he's the
guy who fired Norm McDonald because Nor McDonald was making
jokes about OJ Simpson. Yes, there will be a documentary
about this on Peacock in two weeks called Downey wrote
that it's about Jim Downey, the greatest comedy writer SNL history,
(02:26):
and Downey was the one writing those jokes with Norm
McDonald and they're going to do a whole section on
that OJ Steff.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Wow. Cool.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
But donal Oldmeyer was the first guy. He went some
hack like. He was the first guy to produce Monday
Night Football in the seventies. So he did it as
long as he got, you know, full control. So here
is Donaldmyer's plan.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Meyer figured the quickest way to get some bus for
the show was through a very public search. The original
choice was recently retired coaching legend Bill Parcells, but after
that deal fell through, the field opened up Steve Young,
Nate Newton, Jimmy Johnson, Tom Jackson, and Robin Roberts were
all rumored candidates, but ultimately the only other athlete hired
was NFL Hall of Famer Dan Fouts. Olmyer wasn't done there,
(03:06):
as he wanted to try something radical for the show.
In his initial search, two candidates stood out to him,
first with Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser. Second was conservative
talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who came pretty close to
landing the gig.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, so Rush Limbaugh almost got the job, and here's
why he didn't.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
Rush had begun publicly campaigning for the job on his
talk show and dominated any poll that presented him as
an option. The publicity led to an audition that must
have gone well, because Olmeyer seemed poised to hire him
before NFL Commissioner Paul Pagliabu allegedly told him it was
a terrible idea. I wonder why the commissioner was so
against it.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
I don't think he's been that good from the get go.
I think what we've had here is a little social
concern in the NFL, and the media has been very
desirous that a black quarterback do well.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, do you guys remember this. No, because Limbaugh ended
up being on one of the studio SCEs okay on NBC,
and he lasted I think that clip. I don't know
if they show you, but he got removed. I don't
think he lasted a full season because he went in
on the black Quarterback thing. Yes, yeah, so he was
(04:13):
on I don't know if his CBS or NBC.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
He's on NBC. I remember this, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
He he They got him on a studio show and
then they removed him because he couldn't help but be rush.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So they wouldn't do Rush because Taglo Boo basically said no.
So here's the next plan. Uh, it was to go
get Dennis Miller. He liked Dennis Miller. He was considering
him for like a funny halftime show because he liked him.
But he does rants. Here's one of his early games,
which actually Tom Brady's very first preseason game ever as well.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
He wasn't going as obscure as often as you think.
Now the pregame analysis, well that's a whole other story.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, it's hit the Fan and Jacksonville all and everybody's
got this theory on af Comferin's gonna handle. It seems
a local citizen reassumes he's going to become Captain blind
start keel Hall and they presumed malcolmst The local press.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Has gotten even more I don't know they think him
of this.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Captain twig hallucinating that there are strawberries missing from the
team's walk in puller.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
What in the world he's amazing?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Okay, So that's that's all.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Are you guys old enough to remember Dennis Miller when
he was the I remember, and Snellen never liked him
because he was using words that were too big for
a six year old, and not only that, references that
were so obscure.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Yeah, like that right there?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, like what it's it's so like you know, and
that I don't remember it being that insane.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
This is more from his early days.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And he beats on Al Davis like Buddy rich on
a snare drum when he knew Gene Crooper was standing
in the back of the room. Indeed, his debut was
so preternatural last year. One can only assume that Warner
is a latter day Joe Hardy.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
He's just no one knows that.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Dude.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
No one's gonna get those right, You.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Guys know who Gene Crooper is is a very famous
jazz drummer. Buddy Rich was just one notch more famous
than Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And this is where it talks about how this guy's
review because they watched a bunch of his games, he
was like, it wasn't his bat. He dialed it down
and once he stopped trying to prove to everyone that
he knew football and just that was a big thing
in his line. And he's like, Alan Dan actually liked
him too.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
With this clip right here does a pretty remarkable job
of summing up what made their dynamics so fun.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
But what it does is.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
If you do that in the first period, it sets
up your play action game. It's set to make the
defense come up, play man the man, and it opens
up the long pass for the Redskins, something they haven't
had so far in.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
The first two games.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Oh you men with your football talk. Second down.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
That's him responding to the criticism.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yes, because sports Riders hated that he got that opportunity
to go do that.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I'm going to use that drop so much a man
in your football time, didn't Cornheiser end up on money football?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And you got it after him? Okay, and Ada and
got it for a few years, and then Corneizer.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I mean, I respect Corneizer, but I'm not into him,
Like I don't care what he says or doesn't say.
He's never moved the needle for me.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That was funny, though he only did for one year.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That's amazing. All right, good stuff, dere Tizzle. Coming up
next in Christina's cookie jar. We have a list of
presenters or performers for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We'll do a little guessing game and figure out who
is matched up with who next. Right here on the
e
Nine one point one the Eagle. Don't forget nine inch
nails tickets, got to be listening to win. Gotta have
an iHeart APT Now. This segment right here is brought
to you by Franklin Frankel. Two one four three three
three thirty three thirty three. Those are our guys. Love
them Frankel and Frankel. They've been partners with the show
since two thousand and eight and they take care of people.
Between Mark, Scott and Gene, they have ninety years of
(00:22):
experience getting you the money you deserve, deserve when you
get hurt in a wreck or on the job site.
Franklin Frankel. But right now it's time for this.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Now is cool.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Around the sports KTD, fun twins as all the sports.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Okay, So way back in
the day, someone are my good friend, good friend and
good friend Texas Carter sent me this videos. Check it out, dude.
It's like twenty minute on Mini doc and when Dennis
Miller got into the Monday Night at Football Booth and
it was awesome. It was pretty pretty great. Put some
audio from it for a second.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I do remember you remember this.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
When this happened.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I do because it was.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean, I was around eleven or twelve, so I
knew it was going on, and I wanted to be
a play by play broadcaster growing, so I was like,
you know, followed this crap. I'm one of those people
who does care who's broadcasting the games each week. Like
there're still in that way. So, you know, back then
in the nineties, though, the cable boom had happened, so
you have dents in the ratings for NBC and Fox
and ABC and CBS. The networks were kind of fighting
(01:25):
that off. By two thousand, Monday Night Football's ratings were declining, which,
since sounds crazy now, one reason they were declining is
because so many young men were watching Monday Night Raw
on WFA test That is the Rock, that is Stone
called Steve Austin, That's Kine, that's the Undertaker, and it
was Edgy. Okay. At the time, Rick Flair and hul
(01:45):
Cogan were at WCW and it was a little different.
This was Edgy over here, and it was good.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm so interested in that as a cultural phenomenon, but
I care so little about it in terms of like wrestling, Yeah,
but I'm interested in the cultural impact and how for sure,
especially people y'all's age. The way I see you guys
talk about it is fascinating to me.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Okay, So they hire or they make a call to
Don Oldmeyer. Donaldmyer had just left at NBC. Donald Meyer
is the guy who you probably know because he's the
guy who fired Norm McDonald because Nor McDonald was making
jokes about OJ Simpson. Yes, there will be a documentary
about this on Peacock in two weeks called Downey wrote
that it's about Jim Downey, the greatest comedy writer SNL history,
(02:26):
and Downey was the one writing those jokes with Norm
McDonald and they're going to do a whole section on
that OJ Steff.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Wow. Cool.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
But donal Oldmeyer was the first guy. He went some
hack like. He was the first guy to produce Monday
Night Football in the seventies. So he did it as
long as he got, you know, full control. So here
is Donaldmyer's plan.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Meyer figured the quickest way to get some bus for
the show was through a very public search. The original
choice was recently retired coaching legend Bill Parcells, but after
that deal fell through, the field opened up Steve Young,
Nate Newton, Jimmy Johnson, Tom Jackson, and Robin Roberts were
all rumored candidates, but ultimately the only other athlete hired
was NFL Hall of Famer Dan Fouts. Olmyer wasn't done there,
(03:06):
as he wanted to try something radical for the show.
In his initial search, two candidates stood out to him,
first with Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser. Second was conservative
talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who came pretty close to
landing the gig.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, so Rush Limbaugh almost got the job, and here's
why he didn't.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
Rush had begun publicly campaigning for the job on his
talk show and dominated any poll that presented him as
an option. The publicity led to an audition that must
have gone well, because Olmeyer seemed poised to hire him
before NFL Commissioner Paul Pagliabu allegedly told him it was
a terrible idea. I wonder why the commissioner was so
against it.
Speaker 6 (03:41):
I don't think he's been that good from the get go.
I think what we've had here is a little social
concern in the NFL, and the media has been very
desirous that a black quarterback do well.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, do you guys remember this. No, because Limbaugh ended
up being on one of the studio SCEs okay on NBC,
and he lasted I think that clip. I don't know
if they show you, but he got removed. I don't
think he lasted a full season because he went in
on the black Quarterback thing. Yes, yeah, so he was
(04:13):
on I don't know if his CBS or NBC.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
He's on NBC. I remember this, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
He he They got him on a studio show and
then they removed him because he couldn't help but be rush.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So they wouldn't do Rush because Taglo Boo basically said no.
So here's the next plan. Uh, it was to go
get Dennis Miller. He liked Dennis Miller. He was considering
him for like a funny halftime show because he liked him.
But he does rants. Here's one of his early games,
which actually Tom Brady's very first preseason game ever as well.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
He wasn't going as obscure as often as you think.
Now the pregame analysis, well that's a whole other story.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, it's hit the Fan and Jacksonville all and everybody's
got this theory on af Comferin's gonna handle. It seems
a local citizen reassumes he's going to become Captain blind
start keel Hall and they presumed malcolmst The local press.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Has gotten even more I don't know they think him
of this.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Captain twig hallucinating that there are strawberries missing from the
team's walk in puller.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
What in the world he's amazing?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Okay, So that's that's all.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Are you guys old enough to remember Dennis Miller when
he was the I remember, and Snellen never liked him
because he was using words that were too big for
a six year old, and not only that, references that
were so obscure.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Yeah, like that right there?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, like what it's it's so like you know, and
that I don't remember it being that insane.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
This is more from his early days.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And he beats on Al Davis like Buddy rich on
a snare drum when he knew Gene Crooper was standing
in the back of the room. Indeed, his debut was
so preternatural last year. One can only assume that Warner
is a latter day Joe Hardy.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
He's just no one knows that.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Dude.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
No one's gonna get those right, You.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Guys know who Gene Crooper is is a very famous
jazz drummer. Buddy Rich was just one notch more famous
than Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
And this is where it talks about how this guy's
review because they watched a bunch of his games, he
was like, it wasn't his bat. He dialed it down
and once he stopped trying to prove to everyone that
he knew football and just that was a big thing
in his line. And he's like, Alan Dan actually liked
him too.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
With this clip right here does a pretty remarkable job
of summing up what made their dynamics so fun.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
But what it does is.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
If you do that in the first period, it sets
up your play action game. It's set to make the
defense come up, play man the man, and it opens
up the long pass for the Redskins, something they haven't
had so far in.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
The first two games.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Oh you men with your football talk. Second down.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
That's him responding to the criticism.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yes, because sports Riders hated that he got that opportunity
to go do that.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I'm going to use that drop so much a man
in your football time, didn't Cornheiser end up on money football?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
And you got it after him? Okay, and Ada and
got it for a few years, and then Corneizer.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I mean, I respect Corneizer, but I'm not into him,
Like I don't care what he says or doesn't say.
He's never moved the needle for me.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That was funny, though he only did for one year.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That's amazing. All right, good stuff, dere Tizzle. Coming up
next in Christina's cookie jar. We have a list of
presenters or performers for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We'll do a little guessing game and figure out who
is matched up with who next. Right here on the
e
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