End of Monday Night Football on broadcast TV

[Dr Mordrid]

Who can forget Hank Williams Jr. singing "Are you ready for some football?" at the start of MNF?

Not for long on broadcast TV

ABC's Monday Night Football is moving to the ESPN cable network after tonights game after 555 episodes, ending a 36 year tradition;

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/SPT0301/512260368/1035/SPT

Personally; it hasn't been the same since Howard Cosell died

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

Cosell was an annoying SOB. I like Madden a lot better.

I don't really see why they are switching this to their cable network. They are paying twice as much and lowering their potential audience numbers, since ESPN is avaliable only on cable/satellite.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yeah, Cosell could be an a$$ but that made for some nice interplay with the other guys

MNF's ratings have been going down so ABC thinks they can replace it with another sucess like Desparate Housewives, therby increasing their advertising revenues. They don't really lose anything since ESPN and ABC are both parts of the same conglomerate.

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

Well the ratings have sucked this year because of too many poor bets as to what would be important games. Green Bay was on something like 4 times and kept disappointing. And when a game is 42-3 or whatever, and the stadium has emptied out, what hope is there that a TV audience will stick with it?

[GT98]

I was reading an article on why ABC switched over to using ESPN for MNF, and the reason was quite simple...the NFL told them they could keep the rights for $8 Billion dollars! I'm not sure how long the Term of the contract was, but ESPN can afford it since they make something like $2 bucks per subscriber + plus revenue from advertising.

[TnT]

The Sunday night game is now going to be the premier one as it moves to NBC.

[Gurm]

Y'all are gonna hate me for saying it... but good riddance? Who cares? *shrug*

[Dr Mordrid]

Not me....I lost viewing interest in MNF a long time ago for several reasons, and Cosell was a minor one. The main reasons were the increasingly heinous behavior of the players and the poor game selection noted by KvH.

Just noting a passing moment in history.

Dr. Mordrid

[TnT]

Game selection has been horrible, that's true. Bad player attitudes get weeded out and the majority of players are good guys. Guys who do stupid stuff and go to jail suffer the consequences, um, not OJ, but look at Jamal Lewis' crappy season this year. You ever hear anything negative from the linemen who make up 41% of the guys on the field?

[Gurm]

Game selection has been horrible, that's true. Bad player attitudes get weeded out and the majority of players are good guys. Guys who do stupid stuff and go to jail suffer the consequences, um, not OJ, but look at Jamal Lewis' crappy season this year. You ever hear anything negative from the linemen who make up 41% of the guys on the field?

No, you don't. One of the irksome things about American "professional sports" is that it promotes a culture of ... well ok this is the PRIMARY thing I have against it. Many people have accused me of being anti-athletics, which I'm very much not. I am, however, vociferously against the "sports culture" which permeates American society at the moment. And the big-money, big-name, big-trouble idiot "stars" are a big part of the problem. The lineman who shows up, works his ASS off, gets paid pretty darn well but let's face it his career is only 5 years long before he's all done... those guys deserve everyone's respect.

[Jammrock]

I like Madden a lot better.

Bleh! Madden is a drunken twit. All he does is talk about the Raiders and the Cowboys or how great whatever team is winning is. He's become the Harry Kerry of football. He's been doing it so long nobody cares if he's drunk and doesn't know what he's talking about because he's an "icon." I'd rather have Dennis Miller back than listen to another drunken-Madden rave.

Back to the topic at hand ... I can see this as a good move for ABC. They must figure that most of the people watching MNF already have ESPN, so it shouldn't lose too much market. The moves opens up ABC's Monday night time slot to compete with CBS in the rating wars. After all, it's cheaper to produce a sitcom than to pay out the nose for broadcast rights for MNF. What's MNF worth these days anyway ... $150 million for a 5-year deal?

[GT98]

After all, it's cheaper to produce a sitcom than to pay out the nose for broadcast rights for MNF. What's MNF worth these days anyway ... $150 million for a 5-year deal?

Going back to my other post...I found out that its 1.1 Billion Per Year...egh

[Jammrock]

The lineman who shows up, works his ASS off, gets paid pretty darn well but let's face it his career is only 5 years long before he's all done... those guys deserve everyone's respect.

Here here! My old line coach used to point out that the only position in football with the word "man" in it is the lineman. All the other positions were for the pretty boys trying to impress the cheerleaders.

I'm starting to get a lot like Doc, and a little like Gurm, when it comes to football (the American sort of course). I think the NFL is starting to run their show a lot like the NBA, which I lothe, and concentrate more on trying to make superstars that they can heavily bank on, more than finding a broad talent pool have good games. The salary cap and profit sharing was a smart move, as it allows smaller market teams to afford talent to mix things up, so it's not always the coastal and Texas teams winning it every year. But still, they are concentrating more on advertising and royalites than making the game better.

That and the sport culture is pretty ridiculous. There's a Denver native at my congregation that rubs it in every time the Broncos beat the Chiefs. I think he finally got the point just recently that I don't get upset if my teams lose, I just like watching the game and rooting the home team on. It's a game. I used to enjoy playing it (when I was in shape enough to do so), and now I enjoy watching it. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Gurm]

So... see, here's the problem I see. The fact that there are "icons" who drunkenly cavort and spew nonsensical drivel... it is indicative of a larger problem!

[Dr Mordrid]

So... see, here's the problem I see. The fact that there are "icons" who drunkenly cavort and spew nonsensical drivel... it is indicative of a larger problem!

T.O. and the Vikings involved in the "love boat" incident

GAWD.....I can't stand T.O.

Dr. Mordrid