Why Monday Night Football Is No Longer Relevant

[TMC]

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.a...d9afb36c384c7#

Ever since 2006, when ESPN bought sole TV rights to the National
Football League's famous "Monday Night Football" and moving it from
ABC after 35 years, the all-sports superpower cable network has pulled
out all the stops to not only heavily promote every game but treat it
like an event no matter who is playing. They devote most of their
Sportscenters before the game, to the game.

They have an hour and a half of "NFL Monday Night Countdown" devoted
to not only talk about the game but to put player interview after
player interview on the players in the game. It's complete overkill,
but hey with billions of dollars being spent each year and since the
"worldwide leader in sports" doesn't have the Super Bowl or a single
NFL playoff game to it's endless list of sports properties, ESPN does
everything possible to make "Monday Night Football" a highly watchable
event.

We know that many NFL regular season games are like an event. Tens of
millions tune in to the big match ups where ever they are televised -
whether it's on ESPN, CBS, FOX, NBC, or even the new "Thursday Night
Football" on NFL Network.

With so many ways of watching the NFL football these days, does
"Monday Night Football" matter anymore? Or better yet does it still
exist? Yes, there is still NFL Football on Monday nights in the
regular season.

This is not the 70s, 80s, and 90s anymore when "Monday Night Football"
on ABC was not only the biggest prime-time sports series on television
but also where the NFL would put their biggest match ups on the Monday
night schedule. The days of Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, and "Dandy"
Don Meredith are long gone.

The great Al Michaels now calls games with his still great "miracles"
voice with Chris Collinsworth on NBC. But a huge culture change has
happened in the past few decades that have changed how we view the NFL
as an event.

Before ESPN took over the Monday night package there were only two
networks to view the NFL in prime-time: ABC on Monday nights and ESPN
on Sunday nights.

Now there are three: NBC for Sunday nights, ESPN for Monday nights,
and the NFL Network for 13 out of the 17 weeks of the regular season.
And even though the NBC Thanksgiving night showdown was a humongous
blowout with the stable Patriots destroying the lost Jets, the game
still attracted high viewership. The NFL Network used to have Thursday
games for for only two months, but the league expanded the length of
the schedule to get more cable subscribers like Time Warner to put the
channel on it's list of cable channels and it worked.

The ratings for the NFL Network's Thursday night games were big and
almost as big as an audience for Simon Cowell's "X Factor" on Fox.
Also, NBC has something ESPN does not: Flexible scheduling. That helps
NBC tremendously because they can get games late in the season, like
the Cowboys vs Redskins NFC East divisional showdown, from CBS and Fox
placing them in the now-coveted 8:20PM slot and helping NBC's "Sunday
Night Football" to become the most-watched prime-time show on
television: beating out American Idol.

Most of the games on Monday Nights have been dull and they have been
with little buzz. The ratings for Monday Night games on ESPN this year
were the lowest since 2008. The average ratings for "Monday Night
Football" were 7.6 with four-year viewer average of 12.8 million
viewers.

That may be more than acclaimed shows like Mad Men and Homeland which
get additional viewers from on-demand DVR recordings but that still
can't be a bright spot on schedule that had sub .500 team matchups for
ESPN to try everything they can to showcase. There were games that
were barely able to match the hype of ESPN promotions. The 6-7 Jets
against the 4-9 Titans? The 3-7 Panthers against the 2-8 Eagles? The
4-10 Lions facing up to a 6-0 Falcons?

If Hank Williams Jr. hadn't made his controversial comments about
President Obama and still doing his "Are you ready for some football"
opening skits you wonder if the song would suit the schedule ESPN has
been forced to telecast. Heck, even though the World Series between
the Tigers and the now-champion Giants wasn't watched by a lot of
people this year, at least it was better than the overly-hyped ESPN
Monday Night schedule this year.

Then there's also the access to the vast majority of NFL games on NFL
Red Zone, now given the many more subscribers thanks to the deal with
Time Warner, where fans can now watch every touchdown of every Sunday
afternoon game on the live Fox and CBS feed without having to fork
over lots of cash to buy a Direct TV dish or go to a sports bar to
watch all the games on every monitor.

Look, this Monday Night year hasn't been a total disappointment. There
was the great game in Washington where Robert Griffin III and the
Redskins outshone the now suddenly struggling champion Giants. There
was a lot of buzz over the replacement referees messing up a last
second call between the Packers and Seahawks that led to the end of
the regular referees being locked out. And Mike Turico and Jon Gruden
have chemistry as good as the duos of NBC's Michaels/Collinsworth,
Fox's Buck/Aikman, and CBS' Nantz/Simms.

But the schedule that ESPN has had the past few years isn't worthy of
the title "Monday Night Football". Now even though ESPN doesn't have a
single chunk of the NFL post-season and the rights for sports' other
big television events have been retained like March Madness on CBS
(thanks in part to Turner) and the Olympics on NBC, they still have a
lot of great sports and games to watch on the biggest source of sports
for fans of all sports in America.

With all the changes in how the NFL is watched these days and the
changes in how games are scheduled in prime-time, "Monday Night
Football" isn't the premiere showcase of the NFL anymore. The title
"Monday Night Football" still stands and ESPN may hype every game all
it wants, but "Monday Night Football" is still nothing more than just
football on Monday night.

[gilligan fanatic]

it's on too damn late, I wish it started like at 7 instead of 8:30

[Schmoopie]

It starts at 6:30 in Seattle which even after 16 years I find really weird. It seems so early But then again whenever the Hawks play someone on the East Coast or someone like Dallas or Chicago and the game starts at 12:30 (In Dallas or Chicago), then the game comes on here at 10:30 in the morning!

[Tweety]

I think that MNF is, if anything, more relevant to more fans than in the past…. This from someone who was there when MNF started.

The reason I say that is because of the obvious impact fantasy football has had over the last 10 years or so. I didn't see that mentioned in the article.

MNF has always featured some good games and some blowouts.

As far as ABC saving the key matchups for MNF, that hasn’t always been true either.

The following is a summary of the MNF season from 1970 (Season 1)

There were 26 NFL teams at the time, each conference had three divisions.
The first MNF match up was Browns vs Jets… Browns finished 7-7 that year, Jets were 4-10.

There were 13 MNF games that year, covering weeks 1-13. Week 14 did not have a Monday Night game. There were no bye weeks.

Only 4 of the 13 games featured two teams which ended the season with winning records:
Week 2: Kansas City (7-5-2) 44, Baltimore Colts (11-2-1) 24
Week 6: Minnesota (12-2) 13, Los Angeles Rams (9-4-1) 3
Week 9: St. Louis Cardinals (8-5-1) 38, Dallas (10-4) 0
Week 13: Detroit (10-4) 28, Los Angeles Rams (9-4-1) 23

Only one game (week 4) featured two teams which finished with losing records:
Green Bay (6-8) 22 San Diego (5-6-3) 20

Six games featured one team which finished OVER .500 and one which finished UNDER .500.

Two games featured the Browns (7-7). They won both games, against teams which finished with losing records.

Twenty one of the twenty six teams appeared in at least one MNF game. Of the five teams who did not, four had losing records. Only the 49ers (10-3-1) had a winning record without making a MNF appearance. Other teams which did not appear on MNF were Buffalo (3-10-1); Boston Patriots (2-12); Denver (5-8-1); and New Orleans (2-11-1)

The Colts (11-2-1) were on three games, winning two. They were the only team on 3x.

The following teams appeared on two MNF games:

Chicago (6-8)
Cleveland (7-7)
Detroit (10-4)
Green Bay (6-8)
Los Angeles Rams (9-4-1)
NY Jets (4-10)
San Diego (5-6-3)
Washington (6-8)


The following teams appeared once:
Atlanta (4-8-2)
Cincinnati (8-6)
Dallas (10-4)
Houston Oilers (3-10-1)
KC Chiefs (7-5-2)
Miami (10-4)
Minnesota (12-2)
NY Giants (9-5)
Oakland Raiders (8-4-2)
Philadelphia Eagles (3-10-1)
Pittsburgh Steelers (5-9)
St. Louis Cardinals (8-5-1)

Bottom line, MNF has always featured some good games, some bad games, some good teams, and some bad teams.

I don’t know what the league “rules” are in terms of how many national games each team has to be on, but again, fans today watch all football games simply because of the fantasy impact.

ESPN has terrible guys in the booth, but what are ya gonna do?



MNF game results, season one (1970)

Sept. 21, 1970* CLEVELAND 31, N.Y. Jets 21
Sept. 28, 1970* Kansas City 44, BALTIMORE 24
Oct. 5, 1970 DETROIT 28, Chicago 14
Oct. 12, 1970 Green Bay 22, SAN DIEGO 20
Oct. 19, 1970* OAKLAND 34, Washington 20
Oct. 26, 1970 MINNESOTA 13, Los Angeles 3
Nov. 2, 1970 PITTSBURGH 21, Cincinnati 10
Nov. 9, 1970 Baltimore 13, GREEN BAY 10
Nov. 16, 1970* St. Louis 38, DALLAS 0
Nov. 23, 1970 PHILADELPHIA 23, N.Y. Giants 20
Nov. 30, 1970 Miami 20, ATLANTA 7
Dec. 7, 1970 Cleveland 21, HOUSTON 10
Dec.14, 1970 Detroit 28, LOS ANGELES 23

Top performances in inaugral season:
*Homer Jones of the Browns returned the second-half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown on Sept. 21.

*George Sauer caught 10 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown in a losing cause for the Jets on Sept. 21.

*Johhny Robinson of the Chiefs intercepted three passes on Sept. 28. He also returned a fumble for a touchdown.

*Len Dawson threw four TD passes for the Chiefs on Sept. 28.

*Hewritt Dixon rushed for 164 yards and a touchdown for the Raiders on Oct. 19.

*The Cowboys were stopped twice within the 10-yard line in MNF's first shutout.

[TVFactFan]

It's no longer relevant because Sunday Night Football is the night that has the best matchups

[dlemond]

It's NFL football and I'm watching no matter what night it is.

So, it's still relevant to me.

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Tweety

Nov. 16, 1970* St. Louis 38, DALLAS 0.

Ouch!

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by dlemond

It's NFL football and I'm watching no matter what night it is.

So, it's still relevant to me.

But most NFL fans tend to look more forward to Sunday Night Football now that they have the better matchups.

I can see the Chiefs/Eagles game being on Monday night football next season

[gilligan fanatic]

Anything is better than the Thursday night games, they are usually pretty boring

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by gilligan fanatic

Anything is better than the Thursday night games, they are usually pretty boring

The worst thing ever created in the NFL

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by Regulus

Ouch!

Yep and that was the Cowboys last lost that year until the SB. Those were the good old days.

[dlemond]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

Yep and that was the Cowboys last lost that year until the SB. Those were the good old days.

Yes, when you lost a game, you just really lost.

Not played well enough just to lose at the end.

Also known as "Romoesque"

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by dlemond

Yes, when you lost a game, you just really lost.

Not played well enough just to lose at the end.

Also known as "Romoesque"

Yup fights his way back to lose by 1

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by gilligan fanatic

Anything is better than the Thursday night games, they are usually pretty boring

Oh man, that's the TRUTH! Thursday night match ups are usually TERRIBLE!!

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by Tweety

Oh man, that's the TRUTH! Thursday night match ups are usually TERRIBLE!!

Yea I didn't even watch most of them this year.