NFL Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football is definitely the best game sports programming on television. Now that they have Dennis Miller onboard he should take it to new levels of entertainment not done before in pro football broadcasting. Plus with a top of the line play-by-play announcer like Al Michaels and also Dan Fouts. Short of John Madden and Pat Summerall this has to be the best broadcasting team in football.

It would had been a ten out of ten for ABC. But I give it a eight out of nine. As I wasn't around for the Cosell-Gifford-Meredeth era. But heard a lot of awesome things and thanks to Youtube, you get to see it as well. Gifford did play the straight man with Cosell the bad cop and Meredith the good ole boy. While Michaels was a better play-by-play man than Gifford was. Gifford's name is synonymous with MNF! When they got rid of Gifford and Dierdorf, it all went downhill a bit for the next couple of years. Let's face it, Miller isn't Cosell despite not being a Cosell fan either. But with Madden and Michaels, both had the second best combo in MNF history. Don't like it on ESPN but now am beginning to like it since they got rid of Kornheiser. ESPN play-by-play man Tierco is OK. But glad they added Jarwoski and Gruden, who is an up and comer IMHO! It's OK on ESPN but on ABC, it is an original that can't be replaced despite new network.

This is really nice. It is exciting to see something classical! The Giants must maintain ball control to keep Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner and Arizona's high-powered offense on the sidelines. The Giants will attempt to run the ball over and over and chew up large chunks of time and yardage. The Giants' defense will have to deal with the Warner passing show and give the ball back to the offense in reasonable field position. Arizona's passing offense is its key to success, with such outstanding receivers as Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston. Fitzgerald has 67 receptions for 939 yards and six touchdowns, Boldin has 62 catches for 792 yards and 10 scores. Breaston, a second-year player, has 48 receptions for 642 yards and one touchdown. Arizona is undefeated in four games at home this season.

BTW, saw some cool widgets at statbeast. Take a look!

ABC made a smart choice in kicking Dan Fouts and DENNIS MILLER! Dan was O.K. But Dennis, Hey, let's face it, he was never a good fit.

ABC brings probably the smartest man in the NFL today, John Madden. With Al Michaels and John Madden in the booth, look forward to a great season on Monday Night Football

As someone who has watched this program since its inception, it's kind of sad now to look back at its history. Those who didn't grow up with this "phenomenan," as it was called in the '70s, can't realize how big a deal this sports program was at one time.

In its glory days, "Monday Night Football" was THE event on television each week for any football fan. It wasn't the individual game that particular night. It made no difference who was playing - it was a chance to hear what humorous and/or controversial things Howard Cosell and "Dandy" Don Meredith would say each week. The play-by-play announcer, Frank Gifford (Keith Jackson the first year) was just a "straight man" for Cosell and Meredith.

Cosell played the bad guy and loved it, and Meredith played the "good 'ole boy," and had a pretty good time himself. I can say the latter because I was in the press box for a few Monday night games in Buffalo and "Dandy Don" was feeling no pain, let's just leave it at that. The ratings were so high that celebrities and politicians would frequently enter the booth for a halftime interview.

The significance of the sporting event went downhill when those guys left and it has never really recovered. In fact, as you know, it left ABC for ESPN several years ago. It also has a had numerous "color" guys. Few of them have ever been very popular and some were downright horrible.

I will have always have great memories of Frank, Howard and Don when this program was truly exciting and all of us fans couldn't wait for Monday night.