Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football (MNF ) is an American television program that transmits exclusively American football games of the National Football League ( NFL). From its start in 1970 to 2005, she was shown on the ABC, since the 2006 season it runs on ESPN. Both television stations belong to the Walt Disney Company. Monday Night Football is by the series " 60 Minutes" on CBS, the longest running TV series in the U.S. and has always been very high ratings, especially among male viewers. In Germany MNF is received via the British broadcaster ESPN America with original image and sound as well as the pay-TV channel Sport 1 with German commentary.

History

After the NFL and American football in general up to the 1960s strongly caught up in popularity to baseball, the then Commissioner of the NFL, Pete Rozelle ( cf. German Football League ( DFL) chief Reinhard Rauball ), the idea of ​​at least one game per week to let them play on a weekday during prime time and to entice the more viewers to their televisions. Therefore, this game of the highest possible value should be. As a first choice Rozelle saw the Friday night as the best way. Due to the high- school football games were always played at this period, he rejected that plan and decided on Monday evening at 21.00 clock Eastern time. The first " pilot game" was still without television broadcast, the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions on September 28, 1964 It was played in order to check whether the potential audience would accept this seat in the stadium. The game was with 59 203 visitors, the most-watched pro football game in Detroit of all time. After this success, the broadcasting rights were first awarded to CBS. However, this is not considered official start of Monday Night Football, as only the ABC broadcast gave the name and the NFL in 1970 by the merger of the former NFL and the American Football League ( AFL) were " newly founded " was. Over the years, the ABC was actually little known and bigger, not least through this show. Already at the beginning got the shipment dream rates of 33 % and more. Nowadays MNF is one of the most famous and popular TV shows in the USA. This is partly due also to the commentators. This demonstrates a difference to German sports broadcasts: Usually only one commentator per match is present at MNF there are always two or three in the booth talking and more on the sidelines to capture during the game voices of players and coaches. This is now done by all U.S. stations. During the 2005 season, the NFL announced that this season will be the last of ABC and from the next season of pure sports broadcaster ESPN get the rights to Monday Night Football. John Madden, since 2002 co-commentator alongside Al Michaels, who commented on Monday Night Football since the 1980s, says at the end of the broadcast of the game: "You can take away the football ABC, but not the memories. "

Trademarks

Monday Night Football has several trademark. Firstly, there is the well-known in the German Space theme by Johnny Pearson Heavy Action with the name. The second is the fact that the program could definitely be regarded as an entertainment show. Again and again, people like John Lennon, Ronald Reagan (then governor), Bill Clinton ( as president ) or Kermit the Frog, to make the program more lively. Lennon and Reagan had occurred even at the same time, Reagan declared after the British singer then the Football Rules. Some songs of famous singers, such as Hank Williams, Jr. revolve around this mission.

Radio

Even on the radio Monday Night Football is transferred since the beginning, currently of the radio stations of CBS.

Commentators

Monday Night Football has and 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, O.J. Simpson, Joe Namath, Steve Young as a studio expert (see Günter Netzer at international football games) and Joe Theisman.

Trivia

• Due to the time difference, there are some oddities in the broadcast of the show. For a long time was sent an hour later in Seattle, the messages do not have to move, which run at the same time on most other stations also. After increased pressure from spectators and the Chief Directorate of ABC came, the news was under the motto "Look the news in a more comfortable time than during evening rush hour" moved backward.
• In Hawaii, it's the time of the offense far the best air time, so that the program will be broadcast two to three hours later. This means that the game is almost or completely gone when you start in Hawaii with the transfer.
• In Guam, the program will be broadcast live, but this represents an 11 clock in the morning. In Germany, where Monday Night Football will also be shown live, the show goes from 2:30 clock at night until about 6.30.
• In some exceptional cases, two games were broadcast simultaneously. This was the case twice for double occupancy stages through the World Series of Major League Baseball ( MLB), in 1987 the Minnesota Twins stadium of the Minnesota Vikings needed, and in 1997, when the Florida Marlins the Miami Dolphins stadium " stole ". These games were broadcast simultaneously in a " conference" for each provided Monday -night game.
• Due to Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Saints home game against the New York Giants was moved to the Hudson River. The game started on Monday at 19:30 clock eastern time on ABC and changed at 21:00 on ESPN to make the actual playground.
• The first planned " Double Header " was broadcast on the opening day of the 2006 season. At 19:00 clock the Minnesota Vikings played against the Washington Redskins 19:16 and 22:15 clock the San Diego Chargers against the Oakland Raiders 27-0.
• The commentators of 1995 played in the film Jerry Maguire 1996 itself in a transmission of a game. The images of the game are original images of a game from the year before.
• Both the first and the last game, which was broadcast on ABC, lost the New York Jets with 21:31.
• John Madden is the most successful coach in the history of Monday Night Football (74% of games won his team).
• The point was the richest game between the Green Bay Packers and the Washington Redskins in 1983, which ended 48:47. The opposite of this game was the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Miami Dolphins, who played in 2007 3-0. The game got to 17 seconds before the final 0-0, this is not just a record for Monday Night Football, but also very rare for the NFL, where for over 60 years was not the case.