Not Even "Hard Harry" Can Save This Game

Ordinarily, we've tended to make fun of "Monday Night Football"'s tendency to bring "celebrities" into their booth to banter with Bald 1, Bald 2 and Mouthy; it's always a distraction from the game and excruciating to listen to. ("So, uh, guy from 'Desperate Housewives" ... er ... so you're in a coma or something?") But last night, we were all pleading for any sort of distraction; the Seahawks' 16-0 win over the Raiders, behind the comedy stylings of Seneca Wallace and Maurice Morris, was brutal to watch from any angle.

ESPN seemed to know this, which is why we got not one but two booth guests. We'll start with the second guest, Brian Bosworth, who somehow talked about his football career for five minutes without steroids ever coming up. (Because no star linebackers doing steroids have been in the news lately.) Still, it's difficult not to enjoy a Boz appearance; the guy once went head-to-head with Lance Henrikson in a major motion picture, and not many of us can say that.

But we'd like to talk about Christian Slater for a moment. First off, Slater — unlike Bosworth (barely) — has no Seattle connection. Frankly, we're not sure Slater has any celebrity connection; do you guys realize he was in the straight-to-DVD Hollow Man 2? Listening to a clearly confused Slater talk about the New York Jets was bad, hearing him chat about how he's starring in an Emilio Estevez movie was another, but our favorite was this exchange:

Mike Tirico: So, Christian, are you a football fan? Christian Slater: (extended pause) I have lots of friends who are football fans.

Hey, thanks for coming by, fella.

Monday Night Football, For Some Reason, Is Still A Weekly Habit [Blogcritics]