As unnecessary as the BoogerMobile’s addition may have been to Monday Night Football by ESPN, the crane of sorts can at least hold onto making a lasting impact.
The captain of the BoogerMobile, Booger McFarland joined Jimmy Traina’s Sports Illustrated Media Podcast this week. During the interview, the ESPN football analyst was asked about the infamous NFL sideline roamer.
“Here’s the funny thing about it,” McFarland began. “When it was first brought to me, I was like, ‘Interesting, so how exactly am I supposed to see the game?’ And we started going through a lot of different scenarios and I flew out to Los Angeles and we started building this thing.”
While McFarland may have been concerned about how he was going to see the game, fans in the crowd were much more hampered by the giant BoogerMobile than he was. ESPN even placed a 60-inch monitor on the back of McFarland’s seat so fans behind him could still see what was going on. But obviously, watching on a 60-inch screen wasn’t the experience those people paid for.
“I had no idea what to expect with that first iteration of it,” McFarland continued. “But once I got up there and we started to kind of understand what they were trying to do, I thought we could have done it without the crane/BoogerMobile. Because what they wanted was a field analyst…When you were on the BoogerMobile, we could only go so far on the sideline.
“I was limited. Whereas if I was on foot, I could have gone a lot of different places. I give ESPN a lot of credit for trying to be innovative, trying to do a lot of different things. I think even the most staunch supporter of it would probably say, ‘If I had a do over, I’d probably do something different.’ But I give them credit for trying.”
Yes, credit for trying. That’s how networks end up with innovations that every broadcast latches onto, such as the first-down line or the rules analyst. The BoogerMobile, however, will be remembered about as fondly as Fox Sports’ glow puck in the NHL.
Not only was the contraption strange, it added nothing to the broadcast. As McFarland now notes, he probably could have done the role of a field analyst better without it. If ESPN wanted McFarland to have all the benefits of being an analyst in the booth, then they should have started him off in the booth. And if they wanted McFarland to be a field analyst, then they should have let him roam the field.
The BoogerMobile lasted less than one season, and McFarland lasted just two seasons on Monday Night Football. While he continues to fill a variety of analyst roles on ESPN, McFarland will forever be associated with the BoogerMobile.
