Jason Witten sat in a room with his new teammates going over video of his latest performance.
It wasn't much different than what he did for 15 seasons as a tight end with the Dallas Cowboys. But instead of being one of the faces of perhaps the NFL's
most high-profile franchise
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Witten is approaching his new role in similar fashion as he did his old one, when his comprehensive film work made him the second-most productive tight end
in NFL history.
"That's where you really learn and grow, the ability to go back and see it," Witten said. "Sometimes it's good and you're like we need to build on that.
Sometimes it's not so good and you're like, man, I'm so disappointed that was a
bad rep.
"No different than a route that you run and that's not what you're looking for. What gives me confidence is diving into that process and doing it with guys
who I enjoy being around and they have the same mindset."
Witten is part of a brand new announcing team for ESPN after Jon Gruden left the analyst chair for a second stint as Oakland Raiders head coach. Witten joins
play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore, who switched jobs with Sean McDonough, who
went back to college games; on-field analyst Booger McFarland; and the only
returning member of the team in sideline reporter Lisa Salters. The group makes
the regular-season debut Sept. 10 when Gruden's Raiders host the Los Angeles
Rams.
This team was put together following an exhaustive search that featured auditions with about 13 analysts. The tests were thorough, featuring dinners at
Tessitore's house to see what kind of off-screen rapport could be built, as well
as practice games in a studio.
Tessitore and producer Jay Rothman were in agreement that the team of Tessitore, Witten and McFarland was the best. Then began the process of making
that belief come true.
The offseason has been spent doing rehearsal games in studios and at stadiums; holding film sessions; having countless discussions and text message
exchanges; sharing dinners and drinks; and broadcasting two preseason games.
All in an effort to build the chemistry that will make for a smooth telecast each week.
Tessitore said he's already spent more time with this team before the start of this season than he did in an entire season with his college crews.
"In all my years of broadcasting, I only know one way to be on a crew, and that's you're now my brothers and my family. That's the only way I know it to
be," Tessitore said.
"That means that you're at my house for dinner
Taylor Gabriel Jersey , we're hanging out together and we're working out together, drinking wine together, traveling together, texting each other,
communicating and we know each other's families inside and out, and we're
serving each other. That just gets extended to the broadcast when the red light
turns on. That's critically important to me."
This new group of announcers is being thrust onto one of the biggest stages in broadcasting. "Monday Night Football" has featured some of the industry's
titans over the years: announcers Howard Cosell, Al Michaels and John Madden;
Super Bowl-winning coaches and quarterbacks Gruden and Joe Theismann; and Hall
of Famers Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf and Dan Fouts.
This crew starts with far fewer accomplishments. Tessitore has had several roles at ESPN for 16 years, doing boxing, horse racing and college football and
basketball. This is by far his highest-profile job.
McFarland started at the SEC Network in 2014 and has done only a handful of games in his career. Witten is a television rookie following in the footsteps of
his former Cowboys teammate Tony Romo, who went from the field to the broadcast
booth to great acclaim last year as CBS' lead analyst.
"He did an incredible job," Witten said. "As a friend, I'm proud of him. It's not easy for him to have that success. Although I recognize I'll always be
compared to that and that's what's going to happen, I really don't try to
compete from that standpoint."
The new crew will also have a bit of a new approach with McFarland
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at the line of scrimmage.
McFarland will have a desk with monitors showing replays, stats and a live look into the broadcast booth, where Tessitore and Witten will have a camera on
McFarland to make it a seamless team.
"I kept using the words extension of the booth," Rothman said. "How can we give Booger the resources that Jason has up top to truly be an extension of the
booth, and how can we make that work and not worry about the orchestration and
stepping on each other?"
Rothman came up with the idea while shaving in May and immediately presented it to his technical staff. Four months later, McFarland did his first game from
the "Booger Mobile."
He said this setup allows him to contribute as a full-fledged third man in the booth rather than a sideline analyst needing permission to get on the
broadcast, and gives him a better appreciation of what's happening on the
field.
"It's an entirely different feel," he said. "You can see the play, but there's a difference between seeing it and feeling it. Feeling a guy's speed and
power is just a different deal. It's actually been pretty cool. Once you
understand the mechanics of it, it's worked pretty well."
With so many new parts, the crew understands this will be a work in progress, but the members are excited to see how it all develops.
"There's still a learning process for all of us," Rothman said. "We'll be a lot different in Week 8
Kenny Moore Jersey , a lot different in Week 15 and a lot different in Year 2. All for the good. But it's been fun."
The creator of the innovative football helmet that performed best in NFL testing the last two years is taking its concussion-reducing technology from the
playing field to the battlefield.
VICIS, maker of the Zero1 football helmet, is partnering with the U.S. Army to research ways to reduce head injuries in the military through a development
grant announced Tuesday.
The Seattle-based company will replace foam pads in existing Army and Marine Corps combat helmets with liner technology developed for its Zero1 football
helmet, said VICIS CEO and co-founder Dave Marver.
"This aligns with our mission and it allows us to protect those who have signed up to protect us," Marver told The Associated Press. "The technology
remains in development, but it's very promising and we're hopeful it will make a
big difference in the lives of our servicemen and women."
Today's combat helmets are designed primarily for ballistic protection and shielding from gunfire and shrapnel. But a 2013 Congressional Research Service
report showed that four out of every five traumatic brain injuries in the
military are caused by blunt impact in training and other non-deployed
settings.
"The main thing is the current combat helmets are ... not optimized for blunt impact protection and that's what football helmets are designed to do, protect
against blunt impact," Marver said. "And so what we're doing rather than working
to replace the shell of the combat helmet, which is good at ballistic
protection, we're actually replacing the inner padding, which is currently just
foam."
Marver said medical staff at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle first reached out to him in 2016 after hearing about the work his company was doing
with the Seattle Seahawks and asked if VICIS could adapt its technology to
improve combat helmets.
"We founded the company to build a better football helmet, but fundamentally our strength as a company is developing these impact-mitigating structures,"
Marver said. "And the military initiative kind of came about organically because
the Army reached out to us to see if we could take this football helmet
technology and improve the combat helmet. So, most startup companies you have to
stay focused and get your initial product out
Bryce Callahan Jersey , but we felt so strongly about the need to better protect warfighters."
Marver assembled a team of engineers to work on the military project, and "I would say it's going to take a year or two before this would potentially reach
warfighters and be deployed."
Introduced last year, the Zero1 is the first football helmet to account for rotational as well as linear impact. Scientific studies have indicated that
rotational impact has more correlation with concussions.
Laboratory testing showed that the VICIS Zero 1 models of 2017 and 2018 rate best for player safety. Last month the NFL for the first time banned a number of
helmets that were deemed inferior to many of the 34 helmets the NFL and the
players' union examined.
The Zero1 also ranked first in this year's Virginia Tech varsity football helmet ratings.
"VICIS has demonstrated great results in their football helmets, and we look forward to continuing those types of results with the unique blunt impact
requirements of combat helmets," said project manager Benjamin Fasel, a
mechanical engineer at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and
Engineering Center.
In 2017, 75 players on 18 NFL teams used the helmet. About 200 players representing all 32 NFL teams are expected to use the lighter Zero1 this season,
as are players from more than 80 colleges and 500 high schools, Marver said.
Several retired military advisers will provide input for VICIS's combat helmet initiative, including Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Navy Vice Admiral Kevin
Cosgriff and Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, who was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons
in 1970 but embarked on a 35-year military career instead of playing
professional football.
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