I know I'm not the first person to write about this, so forgive my unoriginality, but ESPN's extended tribute to Brett Favre and his wife in a Week 8 game against the Broncos was apropos of absolutely nothing. There was no story there, and there was no need to praise him and his wife like they were Michael Jordan, Superman and Jesus rolled into one. Brett Favre's father passed away when he was an adult, and his wife got cancer from which she recovered. I'm quite sure those were major events in the life of the Favre family, but those strike me as fairly normal human tragedies, worthy of empathy, no doubt, but in no way commensurate with the "Favre as Job" propaganda the networks shovel at us. Favre was a Hall of Fame player, who's had an impressive resurgence this year, and by all accounts a great guy. Okay, now let's get back to the game.

But the guys in the booth, it seemed, couldn't help themselves. After a while, I just figured Tony Kornheiser had gone mad, and was praising Favre robotically as if he wanted to stop but just couldn't control it anymore. And Mike Tirico, it seemed, also got the disease, and they dragged poor Jaws down with them - I mean how stingy would he seem if he didn't add at least a few pecks on the rear?

But the more I thought about it today, it seemed that it's not just those guys, but John Madden, Chris Berman and more than a few others. And it's not just Favre, but Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and all the great players who are also considered class guys. (Though Favre is the most extreme). And you wonder why they go to such lengths, and I think it's really just public relations work for the network. If you make Monday Night Football the Brett Favre show, you essentially associate your program, network and brand with Favre. And everyone loves Favre, so hopefully everyone will love your network. That's why companies hire celebrities to pitch their products - they want you to associate those popular figures with their brand. And it's no different, except that the product IS the telecast in this case. There are already ads during the timeouts. The last thing we need is for the game itself to turn into a big ad. But that's what's happening. And then you throw in the celebs in the booth pitching their projects (I'm sure they're Disney ones), and it's all one big ad for ESPN while the actual football game, the thing we care about, is minimized.

Also, praising universally popular players and coaches is the easiest way for an announcer to put himself on the side of the "good". That and criticizing players you think are unpopular - like when Joe Buck acted horrifed when Randy Moss mock-mooned the Packers fans. These guys are like politicians hoping to win the public over to them and their network. It's too bad because the great players like Manning, Brady and Favre are great because of what they do, not because of what some slobbery announcer says.

I wish I could boycott the ESPN broadcasts, but they have a Monopoly on the Monday night game, so I'll keep watching - I just have to buy a TV that keeps in the crowd noise and turns off the commentary.