Courtesy USA Today

(April 24, 2009) ESPN is hiring Matt Millen as an NFL Monday night pregame and college game analyst. Does he deserve a shot? Columnists Michael Hiestand and Michael McCarthy square off.

HEISTAND:
Mike, I'd like to think you wouldn't have cheered on witch-burnings in Puritan times.

Now, I wonder.

Matt Millen played on four Super Bowl-winning teams and in the Pro Bowl, credentials that logically led to a shot at TV work. And he took advantage: He wound up as Fox's No. 2 game analyst — behind only John Madden.

If he hadn't traded in his TV makeup in 2001 to head the Detroit Lions front office — overseeing teams that didn't manage a single road win in his first three seasons — he might now be succeeding the suddenly retired Madden on NBC or teaming with Joe Buck on Fox's top games.

Instead, you'd prefer that the only time he ever gets to talk about football on-air would be, say, answering for incompetency on Judge Judy.

You're missing the big picture. It's not just that ESPN, whose spokesman Mike Soltys confirmed Sunday that the network would hire Millen for NFL analysis and college games, will get somebody who'll create a buzz — including from his detractors, who won't be able to stop themselves from rubbernecking. It's not just that there isn't a correlation between how capable someone was in the league and how they'll do in talking about it on TV.

No, here's the big idea: When the whole point of pundits is to stand out amidst the braying herd — whose size is always expanding thanks to the Internet and sports talk radio — what can top having a spectacular failure second-guessing real-life winners?

You'd switch away if you saw Michael "Heck of a Job" Brown talking about emergency preparedness on the Weather Channel? Or Isiah Thomas on NBA TV? It's just too bad Neville Chamberlain isn't around to go on Meet thePress to talk about standing up to terrorists. I'd watch.

MCCARTHY:
Mike, I told you last fall the writing was on the wall with John Madden. Now, I'm telling you ESPN's making a mistake by bringing in fired Detroit Lions president Matt Millen as an NFL and college analyst.

Wake up Mike. Will TV viewers listen to the architect of the Lions' 0-16 disaster last year?

OPEN MIKE: Hiestand: Give Millen a break
An analyst has to have credibility. How much does Millen have after leading the hapless Lions to a 31-84 record over eight years? (Or 31-97, if you count the 13 games his team lost after he was fired Sept. 24.)

What?s the guy who drafted Joey Harrington and Charles Rogers in the first round going to do? Second-guess draft-day decisions of other general managers? Good luck with that.

An analyst has to be candid. As Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp noted, Millen hasn't really addressed why the Lions were the first NFL club to stumble through a winless 16-game season.

An analyst has to be likable and respected. Unfortunately for Millen, he's the guy who inspired countless "Fire Millen" chants and the "Millen Man March," an in-game walkout protest by fans.

I've got nothing against Millen. I give him credit for humbly taking responsibility for last season during an interview with NBC's Dan Patrick. He even admitted he would have fired himself. But at a time when the sports industry needs to respect the opinions of regular fans, this smacks of an old boys club taking care of one of its own.

If Millen returns to the smart, likable "Baby Madden" form he showed at Fox and CBS, then his disastrous Lions tenure will be yesterday's news. But he seemed tentative during Super Bowl coverage, not his old TV self.

If ESPN's going to hand Millen back his national microphone they should be prepared to answer the question: if he's such an expert, why did the Lions stink?