In their season opener and first game since 1992 without Brett Favre as quarterback, the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 24-19. Favre’s replacement, Aaron Rodgers, was terrific, going 18 for 22 with one touchdown pass and one touchdown run. People who wrote off the Packers when Favre retired seemed to forget that this team is loaded with young talent and 2007’s 13-3 record was no fluke. The Pack will be a contender in the NFC.

On the bad side, the game unfortunately was on ESPN, which means we had to listen to commentator Tony Kornheiser for three hours. He is simply the worst NFL announcer I have ever heard.

In their season opener and first game since 1992 without Brett Favre as quarterback, the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 24-19. Favre’s replacement, Aaron Rodgers, was terrific, going 18 for 22 with one touchdown pass and one touchdown run. People who wrote off the Packers when Favre retired seemed to forget that this team is loaded with young talent and 2007’s 13-3 record was no fluke. The Pack will be a contender in the NFC.

On the bad side, the game unfortunately was on ESPN, which means we had to listen to commentator Tony Kornheiser for three hours. He is simply the worst NFL announcer I have ever heard. Practically every sentence had the words “Brett” and “Favre” in it, and it got so bad that analyst Ron Jaworski told him in a polite way to STFU about it. Kornheiser’s shtick is to establish a story line in the pregame and talk ad nauseum about it, regardless of what is happening in the game.

For example, the Packers faced a 1st-and-33 and Kornheiser said that every fan watching was wondering what Favre would do. Uh, no we weren't — 1st and 33 is an extremely rare situation and no quarterback would be expected to deliver in that situation.

I like Kornheiser on "Pardon The Interruption," whose quick-hitting format forces him to dispense his comments in small segments on a variety of issues; as an NFL announcer he is a lousy fit. I would love to turn off the TV volume and listen to Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason on the radio broadcast, but it is impossible to sync up the TV picture and radio sound.

PS: The second Monday night game, Denver at Oakland, was called by Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic and Mike Ditka. It sounded like three drunk morons watching a game at 2 a.m., with them constantly talking over each other and generally making little sense. I would think the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" could hire competent announcers.

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