The Chargers-Raiders rivalry is usually good television.
After a report this week, some have questioned if it'll be in September.
According to Sports By Brooks, ESPN will assign Chris Berman, its long-time studio host and anchor, to do the play-by-play for the Chargers' Sept. 10 "Monday Night Football" season opener in Oakland.
ESPN would not confirm the report when reached for comment.
"We will announce the commentator assignment for that game in the coming weeks," a spokesman said in an email Friday.
Nicknamed "Boomer," Berman was hired in 1979, back in ESPN's infancy. He is a six-time National Broadcaster of the Year, winning the award intermittently between 1989 and 2001.
But he's never done play-by-play for a "Monday Night Football" game in his career, or any other NFL game for that matter.
Berman will first do a preseason game before the Chargers opener, Sports By Brooks reported, with ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer doing color for both games.
Doing play-by-play for "Monday Night Football" is on his "ESPN bucket list," per James Andrew Miller, co-author of "Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN."
Between 1996 to 1999, Berman was an in-studio staple of the "MNF" halftime show on ABC. He resumed the role when ESPN began airing the game in 2006.
He is known for his NFL weekend highlight package, called "The Fastest Three Minutes in Television," which he supports with animated commentary and sound effects.
The response to Berman's reported newest NFL assignments have been less than warming.
Whether it's the prevailing opinion or a vocal minority is tough to discern, but Berman and public bashing have seemed to go hand-in-hand of late.
Last week, Berman worked the U.S. Open. Deadspin called him "the sentient sports fan's favorite punching bag," adding that he'd spent two days "ruining" the golf tournament.
In response to Berman's reported play-by-play assignment for the Chargers-Raiders game, Sports Illustrated reporter Richard Deitsch took to Twitter.
"If Chris Berman calls the game," Deitsch wrote, "ask yourself if you are being best served as an NFL fan by that assignment."
Awful Announcing opined Friday that Berman in the booth "would be nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for ESPN."
A disaster? That'd be debatable, varying on personal taste.
But for a career that's on decade No. 4, it'd certainly be a first.
