ESPN’s Chris Berman, well known for his clever and very entertaining narrative voice overs of sports highlight replays, will be interviewing the presidential candidates in a special Monday Night Football halftime interview.

The forethought of ESPN, this special TV segment was coordinated with the National Football League. The game, scheduled between the Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers, will be broadcast from D.C..  The game kicks off at 8:30 pm EST, on the eve of the presidential election.

John McCain and Barack Obama will each do one-on-one segments, via satellite, earlier in the day on Monday with Chris Berman.

This will be a unique, and final opportunity for both candidates to appeal to Americans on prime-time television.  Monday Night Football has averaged over twelve million viewers this season.

According to ESPN executive vice president, Norby Williamson, “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”.

ESPN reported that the Washington Redskins are a barometer for presidential elections.  According to Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau, who coined the term “Redskins Rule” in 2000, the following bromide has held true for the past 17 presidential elections: If the Redskins win their last home game prior to Election Day, the party that won the popular vote in the previous election wins the White House; if the Redskins lose, the party that lost the popular vote in the previous election wins.
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In this Monday’s case, a Steelers win would forecast an Obama victory; a Redskins win would indicate a McCain win.

“Monday Night Football” is the most-watched series in cable television history. Now in its third season on ESPN, MNF has registered nine of the top 10 all-time biggest household audiences in cable history, led by this year’s Eagles-Cowboys telecast on Sept. 15, which attracted cable’s largest audience ever — 13.0 million homes and 18.6 million viewers.

Obama previously appeared on “Monday Night Football” on Dec. 11, 2006, when he opened the broadcast of a game involving his hometown Chicago Bears by parodying his own upcoming official announcement of his intention to run for the presidency.

It will be interesting to see if the “Redskins Rule” will be followed.  I expect the game will be the highest rated Monday Night Football game in the last decade. And as Chris Berman would say “He Could Go All The Way ….”