Monday Night Football Signs off ABC

Conservative columnist and die-hard baseball fanatic George Will has written most accurately that American football “combines two of the worst things in American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings.” Amen. However, as a conservative, Mr. Will no doubt felt a twinge of regret as the American Broadcasting Corporation finished a 35-year run of football American style on Monday nights on December 26. While the NFL will play on Monday nights next season, the broadcast will come courtesy of cable network ESPN, owned by Disney, which also owns free-TV ABC. It won’t be the same.

The final broadcast was announced quite some time ago, and so it was most surprising that the final game for “Monday Night Football” was a mismatch between the mighty New England Patriots and the New York Jets, the third worst team in New Jersey [no, the New York teams don't play in New York] after the New York Giants and Rutgers (a college, amateur team that could probably take the Jets on any given Sunday). The game was close only on the scoreboard at 31-21 with the Pats winning; in fact, the Jets stunk up the night, which in the Meadowlands of New Jersey is quite a feat given the chemical plants and refuse heaps. Rich Cimini of the New York Daily News wrote, “Delivering the worst prime-time show since ‘My Mother The Car,’ the Jets added another miserable chapter to their crazy, rotten season . . . .” Enough said, yet ironically, the Jets lost the very first “MNF” game to the Cleveland Browns by the same score.

The finale was far from grand for this institution of American sports-TV culture. When it began in 1970, American football was still an up-and-comer as an entertainment product. The NFL-AFL merger had occurred that year, and the question was, “Who in the heck would want to watch a game on Monday night?” After all, NBC had its “Monday Night Movie” for the masses preceded by “The Red Skelton Show” and “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in”, and CBS offered “Gunsmoke,” and “Here’s Lucy” before “Mayberry R.F.D.,” “The Doris Day Show,” and “The Carol Burnett Show.” NBC decided after it showed “The Young Rebels,” and “The F.B.I.” that football offered viewers a choice, and it wasn't like they were sweeping the ratings battles.

The broadcast did a great many things wrong. Roone Arledge, THE sports guy at ABC for a bazillion years, put three men in the booth (which is at least one too many), and he started the unfortunate trend of graphics during the committee meetings (“huddles” as they are officially known). “Instant replay” was less of a mistake, but now that officials’ decisions can be reversed by appealing to the video tape, it is clear there is too much reliance upon this innovation. And having Howard Cosell broadcast sports turned games into “controversial contests between competitors;” the man was a jackass.

Still, “MNF” was a success. Movie ticket sales dropped on Monday nights, bowling leagues in places like Milwaukee (near Green Bay and its Packers) moved from Monday to Tuesday nights. The halftime highlights were often better than the game being played. That is now at an end. Cable viewers, which is close to 90% of Americans, will still get their Monday night game, but the era is over. One expects great things from ABC’s Monday night line-up next autumn, a vain hope no doubt.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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