by Joe Owens

Created on: December 02, 2009

If you are a fan of Monday Night Football you cannot imagine Monday night without it. As a matter of fact, the 30 or so weeks without it are some of the most empty a sports fan can experience. For forty years now there has been one last opportunity to take in a little football after surviving the first day of the work week and taste a fleeting morsel of the weekend's main courses.

For the first thirty-six years of the franchise's existence the flagship network ABC racked up the accolades and benefits of substantial and sustained viewer ship. When the announcement was made that this run would end it felt like high treason. That is until it was known that the broadcast would simply transition to another network in the family, ESPN.

Unlike the myriad games broadcast on Sunday the Monday night game is bathed in the primetime spotlight, truly being the only show in town. This formula rewarded ABC over multiple decades as the audience grew steadily and provided a solid anchor for the first half of the television season. This success was not lost on NBC who started airing games on Sunday night as an attempt to match the success seen by ABC in the preceding three and a half decades.

There has been several hosts over the life of this Weeknight institution, including the great Keith Jackson, whose Whoa Nelly! is famous with foot ball fans from the 1960s through the 1980s. Others include former NFL players such as Joe Theismann , Don Meredith, Frank Gifford, O.J. Simpson, Dan Dierdorf, Dan Fouts and Boomer Esiason. There have also been some unlikely occupants of seats in the booth, such as comedian Dennis Miller and ESPN's Tony Kornheiser.

Perhaps one of the most ballyhooed pairings was that of former coach John Madden and Al Michaels. This duo seemed to effortlessly move through the entire pre-game and minutes of game play as if they were meant to be together, leading us through this grand spectacle. Madden's color commentary, special sound effects and overall charm combined with Michaels smooth play by play made us very comfortable watching the likes of Denver, Dallas, Green Bay and the like build football superstars on the national stage.

With the transition to ESPN the whole tenor of the booth crew changed, as Wooden and Michaels ultimately wound up in the NBC version one night earlier. In their place ESPN began their run with former NCAA basketball studio host Mike Tirico, who seemed to transition very well to his new venue. Along to help was former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann and Kornheiser.

ESPN continued to tinker with the booth crew, and this season seems to have settled on a good collection of Tirico, Ron Jaworski, a former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and John Gruden a former head coach with Tampa Bay and Oakland. Jaworski and Gruden can give views from insiders that the general play by play or color commentator has not experienced. Combined with the sideline reporters, who include Suzy Kobler, Erin Andrews and others, this is an entertainment offering well worth its reputation.

There is not a professional football franchise that does not covet the primetime spotlight offered by this franchise. Nowhere else can you get so many eyeballs on your team and relish the drama concocted by these masters of promotion and entertainment. We should be so lucky as to enjoy this show another forty years.

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