Monday Night Football

Much has been made of this week's final Monday Night Football game on ABC.

I feel bad because I couldn't watch it. A chunk of ice slid off the roof the day before Christmas and pulled down our cable line and damaged the connection outside the house. We didn't lose our picture completely, but the low numbers on the TV, channels 2 through about 22, were so fuzzy it reminded me of watching Canadian TV when I was growing up. An antenna and tinfoil isn't the best for reception. The cable guys couldn't make it out until Tuesday.

I did listen to part of the game on the radio. I love football and hockey on the radio, and even prefer it to TV most times. But I digress. ...

I particularly like the Monday night games because I have Monday off and I don't have to be to work early Tuesday mornings, so I could stay up late to watch the games.

I recognize the significance of MNF to the popular culture and I do recall the Howard Cosell years. I like Al Michaels as an announcer as well, and that makes a difference. A bad commentator just ruins a game. Dan Dierdorf (pardon my spelling) added a defenseman's perspective that I liked (quarterbacks and runningbacks don't have a monopoly on the game). Now, I liked Dennis Miller -- he was Cosell without the sports savvy -- but I'll admit that the time he compared a coach's call to Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz, or when he refered to the Tigris and Euphrates in a more poetic moment, that perhaps Miller was talking a little above the viewing public.

Another sidenote: I watched the game when TV experimented with running without a play-by-play announcer. That sucked.

But what I didn't like about ABC's run was, paradoxically enough, the hype. I hated that "Are You Ready for Some Football" stuff, for example, and the celebrities who popped by (sorry, John Lennon). It's the same stuff I don't like about the Super Bowl. I also dislike the "mic-ed up" segments of players talking during the game. You know what? Most football players on the field sound pretty dumb and the intensity of their words seem out of place when you think that football's just a game. People are being slaughtered around the globe, an unjust and murderous invasion is being led by the U.S. and, as Lennon said, "there are Nazis in the bathroom, just below the stairs," and we hear some linebacker ranting as if it was the battle of Austerlitz.

Well, ESPN has the Monday game now. I can expect more inane conversation from Joe Thiesmann (I've watched him on Sunday night games and he's bad) and more ego-worship from that network of the players (ESPN strokes egos like Napoleon moved troops at the, well, you know), but worst of all, I'll have to keep paying to watch the game. On ABC, the game was free with an antenna or at least low-priced with basic, level-one cable, but on ESPN, I have to add money to watch it.

Thought: Video killed the radio star, but they still broadcast football games for free.