The 1970s ushered in a new birth of competition in pro football. As with many new things, a new idea sparked the entire pro football landscape at the very beginning of the decade.
A new television contract was obtained by all three major television networks to televise the newly formed league of 26 teams. One of those television stations – ABC – was given the contract to televise a whole new idea, the idea of Monday Night Football.
Today, we in 2021 look upon Monday Night Football as something that we have always had. But no, the idea had to have a start sometime, and that time was back in 1970.
Roon Alredge Has An Idea
A gentleman by the name of Roone Arledge, who was an ABC television producer, came up with the idea to produce a weekly night pro football game. Arledge’s many detractors claimed that the idea would be a flop. But what they didn’t understand was the fact that pro football had already infected most Americans with the game’s excitement.
Arledge banked on that excitement to be present on Monday nights in the fall, and history has proven him to be correct.
The specter of Monday Night Football is something that we take note of and follow even to this very day, thanks to Arledge’s brilliance, and his willingness to take a chance.
Part of Arledge’s brilliance involved having three commentators in the broadcast booth of every Monday Night Football game.
The trio of Keith Jackson, “Dandy” Don Meredith and Howard Cosell would be that trio for the very first Monday Night Football broadcast on September 19, 1970. The trio would change a bit the next year, to replace Jackson with Frank Gifford, and it was the trio of Cosell, Gifford, and Meredith that most of us old-timers remember as the “glorious trio” of Monday Night Football.
The Trio of Announcers
Keith Jackson would be the play-by-play announcer of the first year in 1970. Meredith, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, would provide his southern drawl and down-home folksy comments to better humanize the players.
And Cosell? Well, he was Cosell.
A sports reporter for ABC, Cosell was in a class by himself. An Ivy Leaguer, Cosell was more than happy to criticize and at times humiliate the players, coaches, and indeed the sport itself. He was the perfect person that America loved to hate. Yet primarily because of him, and because of the trio as a whole, the Monday Night Football games were demanded viewing by the American populace.
But Arledge knew that for the very first Monday Night Football game, American viewers did not really know what Jackson, Meredith, and Cosell would bring to the broadcast booth, and to each other.
So Arledge needed a drawing card to entice viewers to actually watch that very first Monday Night football game.
The First Monday Night Football Game
That drawing card would turn out to be none other than Joe Namath. Joe Namath? Yes. Nobody in pro football commanded as much notoriety and fame as did Namath. Partly because he played for the Jets in America’s most important television market (New York City), and partly because of his own flamboyant persona, Namath was the perfect player to promote the very first Monday Night Football game by his very presence.
Arledge demanded the league office to schedule Namath and his Jets to play in that first Monday Night Football game. It didn’t really matter who the Jets would play, but the game had to feature Namath. The league relented. Arledge got his way, and Monday Night Football had its initial drawing card.
So that very first Monday Night Football Game featured the Cleveland Browns at home against the New York Jets.
Cleveland managed to pull out a 31-21 win, as spectacular plays like a 94-yard kickoff return by Cleveland’s Homer Jones and a 33-yard scoring pass from Namath to Jets receiver George Sauer helped to ignite the scoring. Both offenses played well and racked up yardage. It was the type of game that the sport needed…indeed, that Arledge and ABC needed.
The next morning, millions of Americans knew that the world of pro football had changed forever when they asked their friends and coworkers…”Did you see that football game last night?” Monday Night Football was born.
While fans remember the iconic first Monday Night Football game, some may explore casinos that are outside Spelpaus restrictions for an entertaining break.
Host and Author of Pro Football in the 1970s - Joe Zagorski
Throughout his days, Joe spent some time as a sportswriter and has been a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association since the mid-1980s. Joe is also a proud member of the Pro Football Writers of America.
Also, if you’re interested in picking one of Joe’s books up, all three are listed below.
Here, you can learn more about Joe and Pro Football in the 1970s.
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My name is Brad. I’m a professional seminar speaker. I met Peter Beilin in Wellington, FL a few years ago and he told me that he took the idea of Monday Night Football to Arledge at ABC. Is there some truth to that?