Monday Night Football

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Monday Night Football (MNF) is an American television program that broadcasts only American football games from the National Football League (NFL). It was shown on ABC from its start in 1970 to 2005, and has been on ESPN since the 2006 season . Both television stations belong to the Walt Disney Company . Monday Night Football is the longest running TV series in the US after the CBS series " 60 Minutes " and has always had very high ratings, especially among male viewers. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, MNF can currently be received via the streaming service provider DAZN .

history

After the NFL and American football in general caught up to baseball in popularity by the 1960s , the then commissioner of the NFL Pete Rozelle had the idea of having at least one game a week on a weekday at prime time and so more viewers in front of the Lure televisions. Therefore, this game should be of the highest priority. Rozelle saw Friday evening as the best option as the first choice. Due to the high school football games that were always played at this time, he abandoned this plan and decided on Monday night at 9:00 p.m. East Coast time . The first "pilot game", still without television broadcast, was the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions on September 28, 1964. It was played to check whether the potential spectators in the stadium would also accept this seat. The game was the most-watched professional football game in Detroit of all time with 59,203 visitors.

After this success, the broadcasting rights were initially given to CBS. However, this is not regarded as the official start of Monday Night Football , as ABC gave the show its name and the NFL was "re-established" in 1970 through the merger of the former NFL and the American Football League (AFL).

Over the years, the actually small broadcaster ABC became better known and bigger thanks to this show. Right from the start, the show received dream ratings with a market share of 33% and more. Nowadays, MNF is one of the most famous and popular television shows in America. This is partly due to the commentators. This shows a difference to German sports broadcasts: Usually only one commentator is present per game, at MNF there are always two or three in the speaker's booth and several on the sidelines to capture voices from players and coaches during the game. That is being done by all US stations today.

During the 2005 season, the NFL announced that this season would be ABC's last and that the sports-only broadcaster ESPN would get the rights to Monday Night Football from next season . John Madden , co-commentator at Al Michaels ' side since 2002 , who has commented on Monday Night Football since the 1980s , says at the end of the broadcast of the game: "You can take the football away from ABC, but not the memories."

Trademark

Monday Night Football has several trademarks. On the one hand, it is the Johnny Pearson theme known in Germany as Heavy Action . The second is the fact that the show could well be viewed as an entertainment show. Personalities like John Lennon , Ronald Reagan (then still governor), Bill Clinton (as president) or Kermit the frog appear again and again to make the program even more lively. Lennon and Reagan had even performed at the same time, and afterwards Reagan explained the rules of football to the British singer. Some songs by well-known singers, e.g. B. Hank Williams, Jr. revolve around this show.

radio

Monday Night Football has also been broadcast on the radio since the beginning, currently on CBS radio stations.

Commentators

Monday Night Football has and has had some well-known commentators, such as reporter legend Al Michaels and Frank Gifford. Many former players and coaches have been or are co-commentators. The best known are John Madden, OJ Simpson , Joe Namath , Steve Young as a studio expert and Joe Theismann .

Trivia

  • Due to the time difference, there are some curiosities about how the show aired. So a time was long in Seattle sent an hour later not to have to move to the message, which is also run at the same time on most other broadcasters. After increasing pressure from viewers and the senior management of ABC, the news was postponed under the motto "Watch the news at a more convenient time than evening rush hour".
  • In Hawaii , at the time of kick-off, it is still far from prime time, so the show will air two to three hours later. That is, when you start broadcasting in Hawaii, the game is almost or entirely over.
  • In Guam , the show will be broadcast live, but that means 11 a.m.
  • In Germany, where Monday Night Football is also shown live, the broadcast goes from 2:30 a.m. (Tuesday) to around 6:30 a.m.
  • In a few exceptional cases, two games were broadcast at the same time. That was the case twice because of double occupancy of the stadiums by the World Series of Major League Baseball (MLB) when the Minnesota Twins needed the Minnesota Vikings ' stadium in 1987 and in 1997 when the Florida Marlins used the Miami Dolphins' stadium . These games were broadcast at the same time in a “conference” for the respective Monday night game.
  • Due to Hurricane Katrina , the home game of the New Orleans Saints against the New York Giants was moved to the Hudson River . The game started Monday at 7:30 p.m. East Coast Time on ABC and switched to ESPN at 9:00 p.m. to make way for the actual game.
  • The first planned " double header " was broadcast on the first day of the 2006 season. At 7:00 p.m., the Minnesota Vikings played against the Washington Redskins 7:16 p.m. and at 10:15 p.m. the San Diego Chargers played against the Oakland Raiders 27-0.
  • The 1995 commentators played himself in a broadcast of a game in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire . The images in the game are original images from a game from the year before.
  • Both the first and last game broadcast on ABC were lost by the New York Jets 21:31.
  • John Madden is the most successful coach in Monday Night Football history (his team won 74% of games).
  • The game with the most points was the one between the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, which the Rams won with 54:51. This game was originally supposed to be played in Mexico City, but due to the poor field conditions the game was moved to Los Angeles at short notice. The opposite of this game was the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins , which played 3-0 in 2007. The game was 0-0 until 17 seconds before the end, this is not only a record for Monday Night Football , but also very rare for the NFL, where this has not been the case for over 60 years.

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