By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 2:04 PM

There was a time when the less-is-more philosophy in the pro football booth was all the rage.

Remember the late, great Ray Scott's touchdown descriptions as he handled the play-by-play of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s? It went something like "Starr...to Dowler...Touchdown."

Pat Summerall continued the tradition for many years with CBS, and later Fox, preferring simply to offer pithy commentary mostly intended to set up his far more effusively verbose colleague, John Madden. Summerall kept the adjectives down, the hyperbole to a minimum and pretty much allowed the viewer to watch a football game with minimal distractions, other than Madden's often brilliant and entertaining take on the action.

When ABC went to three men in the booth with its pioneering telecasts of Monday Night Football, it was the beginning of the more-of-less school of commentary, particularly when another late great, the inimitable Howard Cosell, got his hands around a microphone and began talking...and talking...and talking.

Some might say that Joe Theismann took the yakkety-yak style to its ultimate level when ESPN finally got its first NFL rights contract and teamed him with play-by-play man Mike Patrick and analyst Paul Maguire.

Despite his on-air verbosity, that drove some viewers to turn off the sound, I'm not ashamed to admit I was always a big fan of Theismann, mostly because he was one of the most cooperative and insightful football players I ever covered. And to this very day, he's always called back.

I also thought his unbridled enthusiasm for the game was rather refreshing, and his analysis was usually spot-on, even if it took him awhile just to clear his throat. Still, I was somewhat saddened when ESPN knocked him out of a weekly gig and into semi-retirement after his first season two years ago in a three-man Monday night booth that also included my long-time friend and Post colleague Tony Kornheiser.

Their on-air chemistry left much to be desired, mostly because it often sounded as if Joey T. thought it was simply heresy for anyone in the booth to deviate from all football all the time. Of course, that's exactly why ESPN hired Kornheiser in the first place. Eventually, it cost Theismann his job, though not his very lucrative multi-year contract, which ESPN is still paying, even if Joe T. essentially does not much at all for the worldwide leader.

Last year, ESPN replaced Theismann with Ron Jaworski, and Jaws seemed to get it right virtually from Day One. With silky smooth Mike Tirico, one of the top five play-by-play voices in his business, working as a multi-tasking ringmaster, the ESPN Monday night booth seemed to become a kinder, gentler place, with none of the crackling tension that occasionally marked and marred the first year.

With the exception of having far too many guests in the booth, some of them talking ad nauseum while some of us were trying to focus on football, I thought ESPN presented a mostly solid football broadcast that was only going to get better with time.

And now, in its third season of MNF, the time apparently also has come for ESPN to go back to a little less-is-more approach to its broadcasts, if that's possible with three men sharing that stage. More significantly, they're going to ditch some of the bells and whistles and try to accommodate people who tune in to watch football, and only football.

Isn't that a swell idea?

They're going to cut back on the graphics, including the elimination of that distracting time and score box that cluttered the lower center of the screen in favor of a for more unobtrusive horizontal line at the bottom that will provide the same information, without intruding on the picture.

They're going to stop throwing reams of statistical graphics at viewers in general, and even cease and desist with those little features from the sideline that also cut into the action. Only one sideline reporter will be on the air every week, instead of double-teaming with Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya, a bit of overkill considering that NFL restrictions make it virtually impossible for anyone to report on the sideline in the first place.

Several ESPN executives were on a conference call last week to talk about some of the changes for the 2008 season, which starts with a doubleheader this week -- Vikings-Packers at 7 p.m. followed by Raiders-Broncos at 10:15 p.m.

According to Jed Drake, ESPN's senior vice president of programming, and Jay Rothman, MNF's coordinating producer, the changes were the direct result of a number of focus groups conducted in Boston, Chicago and San Diego during the offseason.

Apparently the overwhelming majority of viewers sampled told ESPN what many of us allegedly professional critics had been saying all along. Get back to basics. Give us more football and far fewer fluffy in-game interviews. Unleash Jaws and give him more help in the production truck to break down key plays, spot critical trends, explain why Linebacker X can't cover Tight End Y coming over the middle, and enough already with head shots of Tom Brady's girlfriend in the stands.

"You're gonna hear more Jaws," Rothman gushed. "We're going to make him the new Madden (better they should just let him be the old Jaws)...He's one of the most credible and well-liked football analysts out there. He has a unique ability to break down the game and deliver it in a way fans can understand it."

Kornheiser, as usual, will be there for occasional comic relief and journalist's critical eye, and what Rothman described as "instant mini-columns" during the game. Oh please. Tony's just going to be Tony, which is always a good thing to my way of thinking, even though I know some mean-spirited e-mailers even now are gearing up to assault my inbox with a Gustav-like flood of nasty missives.

Be my guest, and get over it. He's very good at what he does, and he does what the people at ESPN ask him to do. I wouldn't even mind if occasionally they do bring someone interesting into the booth. Did you happen to watch Deanna Favre last year during a late-season Packer game? It was magical television, mostly due to Mr. Tony's ability to ask all the pertinent questions in just the right way.

In any case, the critics -- and the people -- have spoken, and ESPN, for a change, apparently will listen this year on the Monday night telecasts.

"We've become more aligned with what they (the fans) want than what we want, Rothman said. "We may not have been aligned in that area over the last couple of years. We may have been trying to over produce it.

"But the truth of the matter is that we're a sports network and people tune in to ESPN for a sporting event. There are many other entertainment options out there. We're in a fractured world and they're coming to us to deliver the game...We may not be 20 pounds in a five-pound bag. We'll give you five pounds in a five-pound bag. It's going to be more streamlined."

Heavens to Ray Scott. What a concept!!!

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at len.shapiro@washingtonpost.com.