50 Years Ago — On Monday Night Football

 

 

50 YEARS AGO — ON MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

One of the special things I miss the most about Monday Night Football is the human drama and unpredictability of the broadcast.

Today, the announcing team isn’t worth listening to. They say nothing. They add nothing. I can’t remember the last interesting moment from any MNF broadcasting crew. It was certainly many, many years ago.

But, back in the 1970s when we tuned in to whatever two teams were scheduled, often the game was overshadowed by the announcers and guests. MNF was must-see TV. We never knew who would drop into the announcers’ booth when suddenly an impromptu interview would break out on the spot. Celebrities, movie stars, rock stars, politicians — plus the perfectly matched trio matrix of Frank, Howard, and Dandy Don made MNF — an event.

In December 1974, John Lennon joined Howard Cosell (who remains the greatest sports media figure in history, in my opinion) inside the press box at the LA Coliseum. There’s no groundbreaking news here, just two legends from completely different worlds mixing it up on live TV.

The terrible irony of this memorable 3 minutes on live television is that exactly six years later to the month, on December 8, 1980, most of America would hear the news of Lennon’s murder from none other than….Howard Cosell. He broke the shocking news in the closing seconds of another Monday Night Football game, certainly one of the most bizarre televised moments I’ve ever witnessed.