Tonight is the last Monday Night Football game on ABC. The network, which has held the rights to MNF for the entire 36-year run, lost a bidding war to ESPN, who is reported to be paying the NFL 1.1 Billion per year for the next 8 years to have the honor of hosting the games.
I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I feel that ABC has done a great job of providing a good mixture of good football games and good commentary from so-called experts.
They've mixed it up a bit over the years, even hiring Dennis Miller to bring his high-brow comedy stylings to the booth. Unfortunately, I don't think the regular-joe prime-time football watching community was up for his schtick, and thus he only lasted two seasons, but it was refreshing to see them try to do something different.
There were a TON of great things to see, sports-wise, on MNF. Tony Dorsett going 99 yards (still a record), Brett Favre playing the day after his father passed away and giving the Packers a performance of a lifetime (399 yards passing and 4 touchdowns), and a ton of others.
Of course, there were also a lot of non-sports related events on there as well. Mainly I speak of the very quotable Howard Cosell, whose verbal faux pas blanketed the many years he was one of the co-anchors on the program. He also had his great moments, too, not only as a sports commentator, but as a news reporter, letting the nation know about John Lennon's murder, or even calling an African American player a "little monkey."
Overall, I think it's been a great thing for football, bringing it to prime time, and I honestly don't see too many issues with ESPN taking over. As long as they don't go too crazy I think it will be fine, and we know it will continue to be broadcast in HD, so that's good. I guess the only drawback is for those folks that do not have cable television at all, as they wouldn't be able to get the games, but that might be it.
I guess we'll see what happens next year, but I thought I would reflect on the "passing" of the ABC era, since it's been around a year longer than I have, and many Monday nights have been spent in front of the television, enjoying the game.
Thanks, ABC! It was a fun ride while it lasted.
-Myles-