I have a problem. I watch NFL football. A lot of NFL football. Pretty much all NFL football. We're talking replays of last week's games on NFL Network, NFL Films season in review compilations from the '80s - I even tolerate Michael Irvin and Chris "I'm with leather" Berman and watch endless analysis on ESPN. This is serious shit, people.

So when ABC relinquished the rights of "Monday Night Football" to its Disney cousin, ESPN, after a 36-year run, I was a little upset. Not because I like Al Michaels or because I can't stand Joe Theismann, but because being on national television made "Monday Night Football" more than a game - it was an event. And as much as ESPN would like you to think it's the same old "Monday Night," it isn't and never will be.

This past winter, while ESPN was trying to convince everyone that Howard Cosell was wearing a yellow ESPN blazer during the '70s, NBC picked up the "Sunday Night Football" franchise from ESPN, snatched John Madden from ABC and traded the rights of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Disney for Al Michaels. (Seriously. The guy got traded for an animated rabbit.) And all of a sudden, "Sunday Night" turned into the new "Monday Night," but not really.

With Michaels and Madden's move to NBC and "Monday Night's" move to cable, the "Sunday Night" game became the NFL's premier showcase. Michaels and Madden are big-game football and their departure from "Monday Night" is the crux of a changing of the guard in primetime football.

Even though Madden is starting to lose it - he's beginning to sound like his commentary track from "Madden '96," and there might be some weird "Weekend at Bernie's" thing going on - but he's certainly serviceable. Michaels, on the other hand, has been the voice of practically every major sporting event of the past 25 years and is as solid as ever.

Upon losing its all-star crew in the booth, ESPN had some difficulty trying to replace two of the industry's best. The respectable Mike Tirico was brought in to do the play-by-play, and so far he's done a respectable job. But Mike Tirico's games don't have the aura of a Howard Cosell game - the kind of aura that used to be "Monday Night Football."

For the color commentary, ESPN brought Joe Theismann over from the old "Sunday Night Football" team. The move has been their biggest mistake. Put it this way: Theismann's greatest "Monday Night Football" moment happened when Lawrence Taylor mangled his leg in Giants Stadium. He's obvious, arrogant, illogical and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

The third member of the new crew is Tony Kornheiser. In an effort to capitalize on ESPN's late-afternoon flagship "PTI," Kornheiser comes in as the comic relief that harkens back to the Dennis Miller days, but in more of an everyman role. He talks about his fantasy team (which is getting a tad old), questions Theismann's nonsensical observations and is occasionally funny, but still doesn't seem to feel entirely comfortable. ESPN has him beating the worthless humanistic storylines of personal struggle to death, making him sound like another useless sideline reporter and completely wasting his unique persona.

To be fair, ESPN did a commendable job with its coverage of the New Orleans Saints' return to the Superdome. They treated the setting respectfully without turning it into a typical Chris Connelly "SportsCenter" puff-piece. There was no sugarcoating, they didn't pretend that New Orleans was as good as new and showed the impact that sports can have on a city.

In a weird bid to add something to the Monday night broadcast, or just make up for the lack of chemistry between their normal broadcast crew, ESPN has been bringing guests into the booth during the first half of each game. Charles Barkley, Spike Lee and others have frequented the booth in a gimmick that will hopefully come to an end soon. If I want to hear Barkley praise Tim Duncan and gloat about the size of his flashy Vegas bankroll, I'll watch "Inside the NBA," not "Monday Night Football."

The one true benefit to come out of the NFL's network shuffle is the advent of flexible scheduling. From weeks 10-15 and 17 of the regular season, NBC will have the option of selecting the best matchup of the week and broadcasting it on Sunday night. While CBS and FOX have the ability to protect a few games of their choice, primetime football will finally have meaningful matchups during the final weeks of the season, something that couldn't always be said before.

The x-factor here is the NFL Network and its increasing presence. Owned by the NFL, the NFL Network is football junkie heaven. (The journalistic issues surrounding a media outlet owned by the league it's covering are troubling, but that's another story - you wouldn't watch FOX News if the Bush administration were running it, would you? Bad example.) And starting on Thanksgiving Day, the NFL Network will be broadcasting either Thursday or Saturday night games live each week.