Monday night is Miller time

You're watching the football game on Monday night, and one of the announcer's comments sounds a bit familiar. Like something from a Shakespeare play. Nah, couldn't be, you think. This is football, there's no room for that here. Just like there's supposedly no crying in baseball, there is no Shakespeare in football.

The game goes on, and the references keep on coming. You hear something about Marquis de Sade, several other works of Shakespeare and a Charles Dickens novel.

You try and focus on what's happening in the game. You watch as Tony Siragusa is elephant stomping another hapless QB into submission.

But the strange comments continue:

"They have less turnover in this fan base than the Supreme Court."

"The guy's been around so long, he's their Indian-Head nickel-back."

"We, of course, got that information from the team trainer, the Marquis de Sade."

"It's A Tale of Two Cities as far as the quarterbacks go."

Finally you realize it's Miller time, Dennis that is. In his second year as ABC's Monday night football color commentator, he's definitely on top of his game, even as his topics stray from the game being played.

It's not the first time an eccentric commentator has been brought in to sports broadcasting. Jesse Ventura ventured into broadcasting, in a league that Dennis Miller would say lasted about as long as a fat dog on a Korean lifeboat, the XFL. Ventura only managed to prove that he's even dumber than anyone had thought. I know Minnesota isn't much of a state to run, but to ditch it for a second-rate joke of a sports league is an affront to all Minnesotans.

Miller, on the other hand, has had much more success. Monday night football is a far bigger stage, and he is performing admirably. When it was first learned that he was taking the job, there was a mixed reaction. Some thought there was no room for an esoteric comic in football. Many wanted their commentating coming from real football experts who have actually played the game.

Miller has won the respect of many, including his peers, with his impressive knowledge of football. And he has blended his brainy brand of humor well, so that it doesn't overshadow or disrupt the flow of the game.

Miller has developed good chemistry with fellow announcers Al Michaels and Dan Fouts, who have come to tolerate his eccentric quips and even try - with poor results - to throw in some of their own. Like them or not, they can not be any worse than John Madden. I had no opinion either way on Madden until one particular broadcast, when he tried to describe how close the player came to a first down. He asked what was smaller than an inch, and his co-announcer suggested centimeters, but Madden decided emphatically that cubic inches was a better choice. "That's not fourth and inches, its more like fourth and cubic inches!" You'd think a coach with his success would know a bit more than that.

Honestly, I don't get most of Dennis Miller's references, and I think the majority of football fans have no clue. But every now and then I'll actually know what he's talking about, and its pretty funny. If not, I can always read the explanations on Tuesday on the ever informative "Annotated Dennis Miller" on http://ESPN.com.

And when the broadcast is all over and done with, I've learned a lot more than just to avoid watching any future Dallas-Washington matchups.