Monday Night Football vs Sunday Night Football

[saturdaysarebetter]

In watching the Sunday and Monday Night games as I always do, and perhaps it's just me being in my '60s, but there was a mystique to the Monday Night games. No doubt because of fewer games on tv then, Howard Cosell and the halftime highlights which I would stay up to watch even when young on a school night, the three men in the broadcast booth. Don Meredith's Turn out the Lights the party's over....and even after Cosell was no longer in the booth.

I can remember so many memorable Monday Night Football games:
Earl Campbell Houston vs Miami
Joe Montana vs John Elway Kansas City vs Denver
Miami ends '85 Bears undefeated season
Joe Washington's night Baltimore Colts vs New England
Bo Jackson runs over Brian Bosworth Raiders vs Seattle
John Taylor's night against the Rams
Mark Bavaro dragging 49ers down the field
Peyton Manning's comeback against Tampa Bay
Broncos - Packers snow game
More recently: Chiefs-Rams high-scoring shootout

And yet I couldn't name you one memorable Sunday Night football game without being prodded and reminded of it.

Are you the same way?

[RichardBak]

WARNING: Old guy reminiscing here...

I always kind of lump in MNF with my first year out of high school, working on the assembly line at Dodge Truck. Made all of $4.25 an hour (with 20 cents shift premium). Good UAW wages in 1972! Anyway, those were the days of mandatory OT. I was a spot welder on the afternoon shift, a dirty, shitty job so exhausting I used to come home after a 10-11 hour shift and fall asleep while untying the laces on my work boots. Hot as a bitch in those plants. And the noise! No surprise that robots took over that job the following year. But by then I was gone.

Come the fall, I started taking Mondays off, calling in sick. My girlfriend (future wife) and I would hit a beer and pizza joint, make out a bit in my '65 Dodge, then I'd take her home and I'd go into the basement of my Detroit home and watch the game on this old tube TV with my kid brother. The TV, no lie, was from about 1955 or so. Screen was the size of an index card. My dad didn't throw anything out. So that was the "second TV" for us knuckleheads in the basement bedroom.

I'd still put in a 5-day week, even taking Monday off. Still put in 50-55 hours. Think I cleared about $140 after union dues and taxes. Finally said fuck it and enlisted the following spring.

Excuse the trip back in time. But looking back, I miss it all---MNF, auto plants, pizza & beer, Johnny U and all that. Hell, I even miss watching reruns of Broderick Crawford in Highway Patrol, which we watched on some other channel after the game. And that "High Flight" sign-off. It's all jumbled up in the ol' memory bank. I'd give anything to be that 18-year-old kid again--even if it meant listening to Cosell.

[7DnBrnc53]

In my opinion, the current NFL is a garbage product. The de-emphasis of MNF isn't the major reason, but they should go back to one prime-time game a week. Make MNF great again!!

[SeahawkFever]

In my opinion, the current NFL is a garbage product. The de-emphasis of MNF isn't the major reason, but they should go back to one prime-time game a week. Make MNF great again!!

What about the league makes it garbage in your book, and when did it start to become garbage in your opinion?

[74_75_78_79_]

And yet I couldn't name you one memorable Sunday Night football game without being prodded and reminded of it.

Are you the same way?

Yes, exactly! I'm really trying to come up with a significant one. ANY one, for the most part!

Now I do remember Rams at Dallas in Wk#7, 1981. But that was simply a case of that being the first Sunday Nighter that I can remember (first impression) and it being, obviously, the only one that season as the case with surrounding seasons.

But, yeah, sure-enough many real significant such games yet I can't really single any out. Okay, there's Steelers winning at Baltimore in 2001, Wk#14, to pull three games ahead of them (11-2 to 8-5) and clinch the division over them. No others unless, as you say, I'm reminded of them.

Does anyone have the basic history of SunNF at the top of their head? The first ever such game, when it became that aforementioned once-a-year event, then maybe more than just one, then when it became EVERY Sunday night in a season and so on? Thanks in-advance!

[Gary Najman]

And yet I couldn't name you one memorable Sunday Night football game without being prodded and reminded of it.

Are you the same way?

1983 Raiders-Cowboys, 40-38 shootout
1985 Cowboys-GIants, late Cowboys victory, back and forth game
1985 Steelers-Chargers, 54-44 shootout

[74_75_78_79_]

And yet I couldn't name you one memorable Sunday Night football game without being prodded and reminded of it.

Are you the same way?

1983 Raiders-Cowboys, 40-38 shootout
1985 Cowboys-GIants, late Cowboys victory, back and forth game
1985 Steelers-Chargers, 54-44 shootout

I actually do remember the latter of the three, and it being a Sunday Night. Again, its the simple it not being a regular thing which enables me to remember...and, yes, it being my Steelers and how they really needed that one being that they were actually still in the race given the, again like last year ('84), mediocrity of that division. Chargers playing in their blue jerseys at HOME (as they did against da Bears in MNF the year before) caught my attention as well!

I don't remember the other two and I feel it's a surprise that I don't remember the first one mentioned. I do, indeed, remember Big D's 7-0 start but for whatever reason I don't remember that Sunday Nighter vs the Raiders yet alone any anticipation of it.

It also seems like fans in-general don't remember the 1980 match between the two - it wasn't mentioned once in the America's Game ep on those very SBXV champs! I'm not sure, but Raiders/Dallas may not be mentioned in the '83 America's Game ep either! Pretty weird if also the case. Given how we never gotten a 'real' Landry/Staubach vs Madden/Stabler showdown yet alone a Super Bowl between the two, the '80 and '83 games would have to clearly be the far-and-away top-two (essentially, the only two that really matter) showdowns ever between both franchises! And both were real good games! Very weird how forgoten they both are.

[SeahawkFever]

Monday Night Football obviously has more of an “aura” around it, but that’s also in part because it was around for quite a few years where it was the only regularly scheduled primetime game in the 70’s, and early to mid 80’s.

I think it was 1987 that Sunday Night Football started on ESPN, Correct me if I’m wrong?

[Brian wolf]

Yes, and memorable games no matter who was in the booth, including John Madden. Its harder to remember the games since its just an extension of the all-NFL sunday. TNT also carried games. The SNF games before were more special editions games. Any prime-time games featuring the Patriots-Colts, with Brady and Manning, no matter sunday, monday or thurs night were usually memorable.

[CSKreager]

2002 felt like the peak of ESPN Sunday Night Football

Texans vs Cowboys, Raiders vs Steelers, Dolphins vs Broncos, Dolphins/Jets, Pats/Raiders rematch, Colts/Broncos in the snow, Bucs/Saints 1st place showdown