Al Michaels and Boomer Esiason Photo edited by Liam McGuire

Boomer Esiason’s tenure alongside Al Michaels on Monday Night Football may have been cut short because of his relationship with Al Davis.

This week, Esiason was The Main Event on Andrew Marchand’s sports media podcast and during the interview, the former NFL MVP was asked about his time on Monday Night Football for ABC. Esiason went straight from the field to the broadcast booth in 1998, for a tenure that he and Michaels hoped would be a long one.

Their first season featured a trio of Esiason, Michaels and Dan Dierdof. And according to Esiason, it started out well, with Michaels predicting Emmys would come their way. Dierdof, however, was unceremoniously let go after their first season, and Esiason saw his relationship with Michaels take a turn in year two.

“It was me, Al and Lesley Visser. And I thought everything was going great and then we had a game against Denver and the Raiders,” Esiason told Marchand. “I was talking to Al Davis before the game. I got all this information from the Raiders and then Al Michaels told me in the booth that ‘If you mentioned his name, you’re going to get dead air. We don’t get along with Al Davis.’ And I didn’t know the whole story behind the story. Nobody ever told me.”

This is Al Davis, one of the most influential owners and recognizable personalities in NFL history. If the Raiders were playing in the ‘90s, you expect Al Davis to be a topic of conversation. Esiason always had a good relationship with Davis. And you would think getting insight on the Raiders gameplan directly from their owner ahead of a Monday Night Football broadcast would have been a good thing.

“There was a real disconnect from that point on that I could feel. It was palatable. I could feel it,” Esiason continued. “I remember out of the blue, I got a call from (Bobby) Beathard, who was the GM for the San Diego Chargers, wondering if I was going to come out of retirement or would I come out of retirement and come play for them. And that came out of the blue, and I’m like, ‘Where is that coming from?’ And then the next thing I know, Howard Katz, who had just been hired at ABC Sports…called my agent and said, ‘You know, I think we’re going to move on from Boomer.’

“That was after the Super Bowl between the Titans and the Rams. So I was caught a little off guard and I was a little shaken, to be honest with you.”

Boomer Esiason previously recalled hearing Al Michaels ask for a “misery shot” when the Raiders were on Monday Night Football. Unaware of what a “misery shot” was, he looked on the monitor and saw a disheveled Al Davis looking miserable. Esiason said he didn’t know what the issue was between Michaels and Davis, but he knew it was significant.

About Brandon Contes

Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com