Monday Night Football: Early Years Quiz

Answer: He drank too much and got sick on Don Meredith's shoes

Cosell was slurring his words during the first half of the November 23, 1970 game and departed at halftime. Popular speculation (including opinions by those sharing the booth with him that night) was that, broadcasting from an unheated booth at Philadelphia's old Franklin Field, Cosell "fortified" himself with alcohol to ward off the chill, until getting sick on Meredith's cowboy boots.

In Cosell's version of the story, told in his autobiography, he ran laps before the game with sprinter Tommie Smith, inducing dizziness that caused him to get sick during the game. Whatever the reason, the incident cemented MNF's reputation as "must see/must hear" television.

Answer: Detroit Lions

It's fairly widely known that Cleveland beat the New York Jets 31-21 on September 21, 1970, winning the first Monday Night Football game. That contest featured an epic performance by Jets receiver George Sauer, who caught 10 passes for 172 yards, but saw his team lose as the Browns intercepted Joe Namath three times and ran the second half kickoff back for a touchdown.

In MNF's second game, the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs thumped the Baltimore Colts (who would go on to win that season's Super Bowl), 44-24, as Johnny Robinson of the Chiefs intercepted Johnny Unitas three times and also returned a Colt fumble for a touchdown.

The Detroit Lions won the third game, becoming the first NFC team to win on Monday night as they beat the Chicago Bears, 28-14.

Answer: Chanted for Don Meredith to come out of the broadcast booth and help their team

"We want Meredith!", chanted the fans at the Cotton Bowl, hoping to entice their former quarterback, who had retired two seasons earlier, on to the field to avert what was the worst home loss the Cowboys had suffered to that point. "No way you're getting me back down there," said Meredith.

A good friend of singer Willie Nelson, Meredith eventually began incorporating Nelson's, "Turn Out the Lights", song into games, singing it when a contest had turned into an irreversible blowout.

Answer: Several reporters left messages asking him about it

The book, "Monday Night Mayhem," about the early years of Monday Night Football, memorably describes the replacement of Jackson with Gifford. ABC producer Roone Arledge was a friend of Gifford and had wanted him to be on MNF, but Gifford was under contract to CBS through 1970.

When Arledge signed Gifford in April of 1971, Jackson was traveling for ABC. As he checked into his hotel, he was presented with a thick stack of messages from reporters seeking his reaction to being replaced. Jackson saved the messages and later, when Arledge told him, "I tried calling you," Jackson threw the message slips on Arledge's desk and said, "Show me the message!" Jackson went on to become a popular college football announcer on ABC.

Answer: Buffalo Bills

Monday Night Football managed to include 21 of the 26 NFL teams in its first season of broadcasts, excluding only the San Francisco 49ers, Boston Patriots, New Orleans Saints, Denver Broncos, and Buffalo Bills. The 49ers (the only excluded team to have a winning record in 1970) played their first MNF game in 1971, then the Patriots played a 1972 game. ABC made good with the remaining teams in 1973, as the Patriots lost to the Cowboys on September 24, then the Broncos tied the Raiders on October 22.

The following week, the Bills beat the Chiefs, 23-14, winning in style as the last 1970 NFL team to appear on MNF.

Answer: Ronald Reagan & John Lennon

Reagan and Lennon appeared together at halftime on December 9, 1974, between the Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams. That they were together in the same room was amazing, as Reagan, California governor at the time, was viewed as a staunch traditionalist with little use for long hair or radical ideas, and Lennon was fighting a US order to deport him, stemming from an earlier drug conviction.

The two got along well, with Reagan explaining American football to Lennon, who was attending his first NFL game. Sadly, six years later and almost to the day, Lennon was killed, and Cosell announced the news during a broadcast of a game between the Patriots and the Dolphins.

Answer: "Welcome to the Mile High City, and I really am!"

This was at the start of Denver's first appearance on MNF. Meredith had apparantly greatly enjoyed himself at a pre-game cocktail party, and led the broadcast off with that bit of cheer, undoubtedly causing millions of young fans across the US to ask their parents what exactly Dandy Don had meant.

Answer: Fred Williamson

Meredith, the most popular member of the MNF crew, left ABC in 1974 to work at NBC under a contract in which he would both cover football and act on NBC television shows. ABC happily hired actor and former AFL player, Fred "the Hammer" Williamson. With his reputation for saying outrageous things, and with his stardom in "blaxploitation" films of the early 1970s, expected to widen the program's fan base.

The network thought they had the recipe for a huge success. Instead, Williamson didn't seem to have much to say, he had no chemistry with the team (the edgy sparring between Cosell and Meredith had been a centerpiece of the first four seasons), and he spurned the conservative announcer wardrobe of the network for open-collared shirts and obscene jewelry.

After a few lackluster preseason games, ABC bought out Williamson's contract and replaced him with former Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras. Meredith rejoined the team in 1977.

Answer: Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell

It seems unthinkable, or maybe just a bad joke, but Cosell had become such a big star by 1975 that he persuaded ABC to let him host a Saturday evening variety show. The act of titling itself, "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell", forced NBC to title its own live show, also debuting that season, simply "NBC's Saturday Night" to avoid confusion.

The first Cosell show featured tennis star Jimmy Connors singing. The second featured the American debut of the Bay City Rollers, modestly hyped by Cosell as the next Beatles.

The show actually did have some bright spots. Billy Crystal made his national television debut on the show, and its repertory company, the "Prime Time Players", featured Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray, both of whom would eventually be regulars on Saturday Night Live (or "NBC's Saturday Night").

The Cosell variety show failed to take off, and was cancelled in January 1976. The NBC show renamed itself, "Saturday Night Live", and was still going strong at the turn of the century.

Answer: "He thinks they're number one in the nation!"

On October 9, 1972, the Oakland Raiders were headed for a 34-0 thumping of the Houston Oilers (Oakland's third win in as many MNF appearances, scoring 34 points each time). As the fans emptied from the Astrodome stands during the final quarter, the cameras found a wonderful shot: a fan, seemingly alone in his section, was sleeping. "A vivid picturization of the excitement attendant upon this game", was what Howard Cosell called the image of the sleeping man.

Then, unfortunately, the man woke up, and less fortunately, "flipped off" the camera. Without missing a beat, Meredith commented, "He thinks they're number one in the nation!" It was another four seasons before the Oilers appeared again on MNF, and two more years after that before Houston hosted another Monday night game.