monday night nfl
Monday Night Football (MNF) is a live television broadcast of the National Football League. Originally airing on the ABC network from 1970 to 2005, Monday Night Football was the second longest running prime time show on American broadcast network television (after CBS' 60 Minutes) and one of the highest-rated, particularly among male viewers. ABC aired a total of 555 Monday night games.
Monday Night Football moved to the ESPN cable network in 2006, ending a 36-year run on ABC. ABC and ESPN are both owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Monday Night Football can also be seen in Canada on TSN and RIS, in most of Europe on NASN, on Five and Sky Sports in the UK and in some regions of the world outside the U.S. on ESPN International. A Spanish language version airs on ESPN Deportes in the U.S. and on ESPN International in Latin America.
Monday Night Football has enjoyed success throughout its 36-year run. The weekly game is popular not only with fans, but with players, as it guarantees a full national telecast of the game and puts both teams in the spotlight. Teams are selected for MNF games based partially on their success during the previous season, rewarding the best teams and biggest stars. Teams with large national fan bases such as the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders, and Pittsburgh Steelers, among others, usually appear on MNF as well regardless of their previous season's record. Teams can make a maximum of three Monday night appearances per season.
Since 2003, to avoid any scheduling unfairness where a team may have five days between games and others six (or seven) before the first playoff game, there is no Monday night game during the final week of the regular season. From 2003 until 2005, one game was played on Thursday and another Monday under the Monday Night Football banner. Starting in 2006 when the series moved to cable, two games are played on the opening Monday night to capitalize on fan interest during "Kickoff Weekend". The necessity of advance scheduling sometimes results in late-season contests between lesser teams, and teams which do better than expected may not get to play on MNF until the next year.
(Cable games are protected from the NFL's flexible scheduling rule adopted for the 2006-07 season. The new rule applies only to CBS, Fox, and NBC Sunday games.)
Franchises with the most Monday night appearances include the Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, and Miami Dolphins. The most common Monday Night Football pairings are Denver vs. Oakland and Dallas vs. Washington, with each matchup having been televised 14 times; both are division games between bitter rivals and draw substantial interest from fans of other teams as well. Atlanta vs. New Orleans, also a division game, has been on the Monday night schedule for three years in a row.
During the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during prime time for a greater TV audience. An early bid in 1964 to play on Friday nights was soundly defeated, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at high school games. Undaunted, Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 to Tiger Stadium, the largest crowd ever to watch a professional football game in Detroit up to that point.
Two years later, Rozelle would build on this success as the NFL began a four-year experiment of playing on Monday night, scheduling one game in prime time on CBS during the 1966 and 1967 seasons, and two contests during each of the next two years. NBC followed suit in 1968 and 1969 with games involving AFL teams.
During subsequent negotiations on a television contract that would begin in 1970, Rozelle concentrated on signing a weekly Monday night deal with one of the three major networks. After sensing reluctance from both NBC and CBS in disturbing their regular programming schedules, Rozelle spoke with ABC.
Despite the network's status as the lowest-rated network, ABC was also reluctant to enter the risky venture. Only after Rozelle used the threat of signing with the independent Hughes Sports Network, an entity bankrolled by reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, did ABC sign a contract for the scheduled games. Speculation was that had Rozelle signed with Hughes, many ABC affiliates would have pre-empted the network's Monday lineup in favor of the games, severely damaging potential ratings.
After the final contract for Monday Night Football was signed, ABC Sports producer Roone Arledge immediately saw possibilities for the new show. Setting out to create an entertainment "spectacle" as much as a simple sports broadcast, Arledge hired Chet Forte, who would serve as director of the program for over 22 years. Arledge also ordered twice the usual number of cameras to cover the game, expanded the regular two-man broadcasting booth to three and used extensive graphic design within the show as well as "instant replay."
Looking for a lightning rod to garner attention, Arledge hired controversial New York sports broadcaster Howard Cosell as a commentator, along with veteran football play-by-play man Keith Jackson. Arledge's original choice for the third member of the trio, Frank Gifford, was unavailable since he was still under contract to CBS Sports. However, Gifford suggested former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith, setting the stage for years of fireworks between the often-pompous Cosell and the laid-back Meredith. (Arledge had tried to lure Curt Gowdy and then Vin Scully to ABC for the MNF play-by-play role, but settled for Jackson after they proved unable to break existing contracts with NBC Sports and the Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively.)
Monday Night Football first aired on ABC on September 21, 1970, with a game between the New York Jets and the Browns in Cleveland. Advertisers were charged $65,000 per minute by ABC during the clash, a cost that proved to be a bargain when the contest collected 33 percent of the viewing audience. The Browns defeated the Jets, 31-21.
One of the trademarks of Monday Night Football is a music cue used during the opening teasers of each program, a Johnny Pearson composition entitled "Heavy Action", originally theme music for the BBC's Superstars series. ABC had acquired the rights to Heavy Action specifically for Monday Night Football.
That success would continue over the course of the season, helping establish a phenomenon on Monday nights in the fall: Movie attendance dropped, bowling leagues shifted to Tuesday nights and a Seattle hospital established an unwritten rule of no births during games.
Cosell's presence initially caused Henry Ford II, chairman of the Ford Motor Company, the show's main sponsor, to ask for his removal. Cosell dodged another controversy when he appeared to be intoxicated on the air during the November 23 game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. Already under the weather, Cosell drank at a promotional party prior to the game, then ended up vomiting on Don Meredith's cowboy boots near the end of the first half. Jackson and Meredith ended up announcing the rest of the contest.
In 1971, Gifford became available and Arledge brought him to ABC, replacing Jackson (who returned to broadcasting college football for the network). The former New York Giant had been an NFL announcer for CBS during the 1960s but never a play-by-play man prior to joining Monday Night Football. In that capacity for Monday Night Football from 1971-1985, Gifford was often criticized for his see-no-evil approach in regard to discussing the NFL, earning him the dubious nickname "Faultless Frank." Regardless, Gifford would have the longest tenure of any broadcaster on the show, lasting until 1998.
Cosell's abrasive personality gave him enough recognition to host a live ABC variety show in the fall of 1975. That show is remembered today only as a trivia question, as its title, "Saturday Night Live", prevented a new late-night sketch comedy program on NBC from using that title until the ABC show was canceled. That seeming popularity was in contrast to the repeated criticisms in the media, as well as bar room contests in which winners were allowed to throw a brick through a television image of Cosell.
After beginning with critical acclaim, Meredith began to take his weekly assignments less seriously, while also beginning an acting career. By 1973, his motivation for the broadcasts seemed highly suspect, given incidents during a trio of contests. On October 29, Meredith was drinking during the Buffalo Bills-Kansas City Chiefs game, which was preceded one week earlier by his pre-game analysis of the Denver Broncos-Oakland Raiders game: "We're in the Mile High City and I sure am" — a not-so-subtle reference to his use of marijuana at the time. Finally, during the Pittsburgh Steelers-Washington Redskins game on November 5, he referred to U.S. President Richard Nixon as "Tricky Dick."
Meredith would be absent from Monday Night Football for a broadcasting and acting career on rival NBC from 1974 through 1976. Fred Williamson, a former Kansas City Chiefs defensive back nicknamed "The Hammer" for his often-brutal hits, was selected by ABC to replace Meredith in 1974, but following a few pre-season broadcasts, proved so inarticulate that he was relieved of his duties prior to the start of the regular season, becoming the first MNF personality not to last an entire season (much less no part of the regular season at all). Williamson was replaced by fellow Gary, Indiana native Alex Karras, formerly of the Detroit Lions. The highlight of Williamson's MNF career was probably at the introductory press conference where he quipped that he was hired to "bring some color to the booth."
Karras made his debut on September 16, 1974 and immediately made an impact when he jokingly referred to Oakland Raiders' defensive lineman Otis Sistrunk as having attended "The University of Mars." That would essentially be the high point of Karras' three-year tenure, with a developing movie career often distracting him from showing any improvement. (In reality, Sistrunk did not attend any college but played semi-pro ball before getting a tryout with the Raiders; after Karras' remark and for the rest of Sistrunk's time with the team the Raiders team guide listed his college alma mater as "The University of Mars".)
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