John McCain and Barack Obama interviews to air during halftime of Monday Night Football game; Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers also involved in the game

By Sun-Times Wire

Something kind of different is going to happen during halftime of Monday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Washington Redskins game. Since it’s the night before the presidential election, ESPN will air interviews with both Barack Obama and John McCain that were conducted by Chris Berman.

Surprisingly, this will not be Obama’s first appearance on “Monday Night Football”.

You’re probably thinking, ‘what are the odds that they would schedule a Monday night game in Washington on the eve of an election?’

From Los Angeles Times:

We worked with our partners at the NFL to schedule a ‘Monday Night Football’ game in Washington on this special night, and this presents a unique opportunity for John McCain and Barack Obama to reflect upon the last few months and address a large primetime audience on the final day of the campaigns, said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production.

Now you’re probably wondering who gets to go first.

From the New York Times:

We’ll flip a coin, said Norby Williamson, an ESPN executive vice president. He said he will not ask campaign officials to call heads or tails. We’ll do it amongst ourselves, he said.

In the same blog post, Berman admits that these interviews aren’t going to have dramatic repercussions.

This isn’t going to be a mind-changer, he said, but it might give people one or two things to think about before they go into the voting booth.

For what it’s worth: the last time McCain’s Arizona Cardinals took on Obama’s Bears, Chicago came away with a 24-23 win despite committing six turnovers and scoring three points on offense.

Cardinals coach Dennis Green did not take it well.

Are you going to tune into these interviews or are you all interviewed out? Will they have any impact whatsoever? Anyone upset about politics seeping its way into any otherwise lovely NFL game?

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