If you planned to escape the cascade of political discourse the Monday night before the presidential election by tuning into ESPN's matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints, you might be out of luck.
No final decision has been made, but The Sports Business Journal reports it is likely that Chris Berman will interview President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during halftime of the Nov. 5 game.
"We've been approached and are strongly considering doing it again," said Vince Doria, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news. "If we do those, we will try to treat the candidates in a fair manner and try to find some questions that have a sports connection but have a substance to them."
The desire to reach the broad and eclectic "Monday Night Football" audience, which has averaged 13.8 million viewers through the first seven weeks of the 2012 season, isn't new. During the 2008 campaign, Berman interviewed Obama and Sen. John McCain in a similar setting.
Doria said the line of questioning would be similar to that 2008 edition.
"Maybe there are some questions about the safety issue in football, which might be appropriate to that platform," Doria said. "I want to get stuff that tries to spin forward a little bit and tries to look at things that our viewers are most interested in."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra
