You can already hear the sports purists screaming: A comedian as part of the Monday Night Football broadcast team? Hey, why not?

The announcement that Dennis Miller, the former "Saturday Night Live" cast member and current host of a razor-sharp, late-night show on HBO, would join Al Michaels and Dan Fouts as the new MNF broadcast team was a guaranteed argument-starter.

Which, to no small degree, was the point. It's been a while -- say, since Howard Cosell departed -- that the Monday broadcasts were any more than just another sporting event.

But the makeup of the new team has been a subject of general discussion ever since Rush Limbaugh announced his candidacy for one of the jobs. And the naming of Fouts and Miller actually created headlines, something MNF hasn't done for a long time.

	“	Whether (the hiring of Miller) succeeds or fails, remember this: It saved us all from Limbaugh in the booth. ”

With the buildup that's bound to follow, expect the crew's first broadcast this season to draw ratings like we haven't seen in a long time. (Particularly if ABC is smart and saves the debut for the regular-season opener, rather than some meaningless exhibition game.) There will be not only a curiosity factor but also the possibility this potentially combustible mixture will blow up all over your TV screen.

It's sort of the same concept that's making "Survivor" such a hit: What's going to happen, and who will make it out alive? Talk about your must-see TV.

Beyond that, the selection of Miller, and resulting discussion, serves as a pretty good litmus test to find the people who treat sports as church and those who, well, treat them as just sports.

If you're in the former group, well, the idea of a comedian in the booth is horrifying.

If you're in the latter, well, it might just seem refreshing. Imagine a guy who's not only going to be willing to say the game's a joke, but to joke about what a joke it is.

The goal of Monday Night Football has always been to reach beyond the standard football viewing audience. It did that during the Cosell era by being an event (and by still being a new idea: football in prime time).

Now, it seems, it's going to try to become more of an entertainment program, different than the off-the-shelf pairing of play-by-play man and either a) hypercritical ex-player or coach or b) mistake-excusing ex-player or coach.

It may work. It may not.

But it's certainly going to be interesting to watch.

And whether it succeeds or fails, remember this: It saved us all from Limbaugh in the booth.

For that reason alone, it can't be all bad.