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 ...
Or on Sundays with Summerall and Madden or Enberg and Olsen. Those were the days...
Some years back, a liberal friend on FB posted “Those whom the gods would drive mad, they first make think America will choose them over football.”
Or may be it was “ Those whom the gods would destroy...”
Lol!
It died with Howard Cosell. He made Ali and Monday Night Football.
When Cosell was on the broadcast there was a bar in Chicago that set up a TV and picked one person in the bar to have a brick.
And he could throw it through the screen whenever he wanted too.
Some would throw the brick as soon as Howard was on the screen. Some waited until he made some particularly stupid or annoying comment. Some at the end of the game.
While the other members of the broadcast team barely showed up the night of the game, Howard arrived at the location on Saturday and attended publicity events.... He would then spend all day on Monday doing the Halftime Highlights. Cosell was the man.
Vin Scully was a damn good football announcer, he called “The Catch”.
I recall the days when the networks gave movies like Heidi precedence over pro football. If the game lasted so long that it overlapped the movie’s time slot, they would cut away from the game and show the movie at the time it was scheduled.
I remember the saddest one, was when they did the highlights for the “Chuck Hughes” game in 71.
LOL! That is awesome
Heck I remember in the 70s when the NBA Finals were tape delayed.
The New Orleans Saints are going to kill the Raiders tonight in their new Stadium. Keep an eye on Taysom Hill.
Actually, Colin Kaepernick didn’t bring it to a screeching halt.
The owners of the teams did.
If they had benched him for the season and every season after that, it would have nipped all of it in the bud.
He was simply a useful idiot.
I remember seeing a documentary about Cosell showing how he did highlights.
It was just him sitting in a chair, with a headset on, watching videos, and doing commentary.
Damn that guy was good.
He never played sports, but he knew all about whatever he was covering.
He had an incredible memory.
He'd also tell you his opinion, which often included telling the audience how terrible this player or team was performing.
Always entertaining.
I believe that Howard would unfortunately editorialize about BLM if he was around today.
Big time liberal.
Now by Monday night, most fans are “footballed” out. They watched the Thursday night game. Then 1pm on Sunday. Then the 4:30 game. Then the Sunday night game till 11 pm. By Monday night I need to go to bed at 8pm EST.
Also, back in the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s MNF was the premier game of the week. It was always between the teams that were going to win their division and be in the playoffs with a shot at the Super Bowl. Now it is Cleveland vs Cinncy. Who cares?
Howard: “Look at that little monkey run”
Howard Cosell pretty much killed boxing in the 80s. He became ashamed of it.
I remember when Howard hosted his own Variety Show, “Saturday Night Live” (this was before NBC started their own show called “Saturday Night”, which then became “Saturday Night Live”)
His plan was to introduce the “New Beatles”, that band was “The Bay City Rollers”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.