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‘Monday Night Football’ debut 50 years ago began a TV revolution
NY Post ^ | 09/21/2020 | Mike Vaccaro VIEW AUTHOR ARCHIVE EMAIL THE AUTHOR FOLLOW ON TWITTER GET AUTHOR RSS FEED September 2

Posted on 09/21/2020 9:55:17 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen

---SNIP--- It isn’t just that it’s hard to conjure a similarly impactful moment 50 years later; it’s actually all but impossible to remember a time when the idea of a prime-time football game could cause such a stir. In 1970, ESPN was nine years from birth. Charles Dolan would not found the operation that would become HBO for four more months.

Pro football had dabbled in games outside its Sunday comfort zone a little; the AFL would play games on Fridays and Saturdays. Mostly, though, if you were an NFL fan before Sept. 21, 1970, you got two games on Sundays

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: whocares
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RIP MNF!! You had a good run.
1 posted on 09/21/2020 9:55:18 AM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen

And then Colin Kaepernick brought it all to a screeching halt.


2 posted on 09/21/2020 9:59:49 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

I wonder how many watched; percentage from a few years ago?


3 posted on 09/21/2020 10:07:29 AM PDT by SkyDancer (~ Pilots: Looking Down On People Since 1903 ~)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Actually MNF hadn’t been the same for a while before Kapernick...but yes, that was the final nail.


4 posted on 09/21/2020 10:08:16 AM PDT by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man, a subject.")
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To: Kid Shelleen

Imagine telling people back then, what would become of sports?


5 posted on 09/21/2020 10:08:22 AM PDT by Professional
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To: Kid Shelleen

And that was the beginning of the end of the NFL, as it became just another means of Entertainment, and not just sport.

The world was a better place when all college football games were on Saturdays, and all NFL games were on Sundays.


6 posted on 09/21/2020 10:09:53 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Actually, what you are positing started with ABC’s Wide World of Sports. That really started the sports on TV legacy. MN+F just cashed in on this and made it into something like a cult.


7 posted on 09/21/2020 10:09:54 AM PDT by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Remember how the best part of MNF was the Halftime Highlights, because in the days before ESPN, that would be the only way you could actually see highlights of your team.

People would go nuts if their favorite team wasn’t included in the Halftime Highlights.


8 posted on 09/21/2020 10:11:43 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

For the first time in 50 years, I am not watching Monday Night Football nor the NFL on any other day!


9 posted on 09/21/2020 10:11:58 AM PDT by Bulldog67 (fight crime, protect your property and life, buy a gun!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

10 posted on 09/21/2020 10:12:40 AM PDT by PROCON (MOLON LABE)
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To: Professional

11 posted on 09/21/2020 10:12:44 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ripnbang

Actually you are right. Replicating the chemistry of Howard, Frank and Don proved to be nearly impossible.


12 posted on 09/21/2020 10:12:45 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: dfwgator

Yep.i remember those days. And I can remember World Series games played on warm fall afternoons, amd the series being finished by mid-October, instead of being played on cold nights and sometimes stretching into November.


13 posted on 09/21/2020 10:12:49 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Kid Shelleen

I can hear Dandy Don Meredith singing “Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over”


14 posted on 09/21/2020 10:13:24 AM PDT by Red Patriot in Blue California
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To: PROCON

Indeed, for the NFL, it’s “Turn out the lights, the party’s over!”


15 posted on 09/21/2020 10:13:24 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

16 posted on 09/21/2020 10:13:26 AM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: Kid Shelleen

Need to bring back the AFL (AMERICAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE).

Players must stand for the National Anthem or you’re fired.
Only thing players are allowed to talk about is football on air during the game or in any interview concerning the game or you’re fired
Any mention of politics they’re fired (same as rule #1 but better defined)
Any drug test coming back positive you’re fired.
Any physical abuse of spouses or anyone else beside the team you play against you’re fired.


17 posted on 09/21/2020 10:13:43 AM PDT by maddog55 (Only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it.)
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To: Professional
Imagine telling people back then, what would become of sports?

Me: "It'll devolve into another soapbox for counterculture McGovernicks."
They: "No way!"

18 posted on 09/21/2020 10:13:47 AM PDT by Spirochete
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To: Kid Shelleen


"They're Number One In the Nation!"
19 posted on 09/21/2020 10:14:28 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

REAGAN, LENNON & MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

https://aaronjhill.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/reagan-lennon-monday-night-football/


20 posted on 09/21/2020 10:17:56 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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