Joe Tessitore and Richard Sandomir

Episode 6 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features ESPN play by play announcer Joe Tessitore, who was recently named the lead voice of Monday Night Football. In the podcast, Tessitore discusses in-depth how over the course of a six-week period in March and April, he auditioned 12 potential Monday Night Football analyst candidates at ESPN’s Bristol, Ct. headquarters; how he approached the audition process; the memorable audition of Jason Witten which included Witten playing football with his son on his front lawn; why Witten landed the job; why he thinks Witten will be successful; his thoughts on other applicants including Jared Allen, Brett Favre, Greg Olson, Louis Riddick, Rex Ryan, Joe Thomas, and Kurt Warner; the plans for the crew for the spring and summer; his friendship with Booger McFarland and why he thinks McFarland will be great in the field analyst role; the best kind of calamari, and much more.   The second guest is Richard Sandomir, the the author of "The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic," which has just been released in paperback. For 25 years Sandomir covered sports media for The New York Times where he now writes obituaries. In this podcast, Sandomir discusses why he decided to write a book about the Pride of the Yankees; how he went about his research; how the film was received in 1942; modern-day interest in Lou Gehrig; his thoughts on the resignation of former ESPN president John Skipper; whether he thinks there will be a future demand for sports media reporters, and more.   You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more.