The Three Wise Men
It was sad to hear the news that Frank Gifford died yesterday. By all accounts, it was a loss on several levels, for Gifford was amongst other things, an early prototype of the term “the All American college football player,” an incredibly successful, professional Hall of Fame football star, a true sporting hero to the fans of the New York Giants during the 1950’s and 1960’s to nearly the same degree as fellow New Yorker Mickey Mantle, a classy GQ kind of guy from the New York society scene, and probably most of all, a likeable television broadcaster and commentator.
Even though he was probably “also known” by many for being the husband of media celebrity Kathy Lee Gifford, Frank Gifford made perhaps his greatest splash as one of the main play by play announcers and commentators, and definitely emerged as one of the three main on air personalities that MADE Monday Night Football into one of the most successful and iconic television inventions/programs of all time.
Pro Football was doing okay as a sport before Monday Night Football was born in 1970. It had a couple of Super Bowls under its belt when Executive Producer Roone Arledge either came up with (or championed) the idea that if the large mass of football fans, who liked football so much on Sundays and could barely get enough of it, would MAYBE like to see that weekend extended one more day, and thus created the idea of football games on Monday nights. Monday Night Football became MASSIVELY popular and successful, with TV ratings that often were better than anything else on the tube.
And, thanks to Monday Night Football, the NFL blasted off into the mass popularity stratosphere (overcoming, and then lapping baseball as America’s favorite sport) and has not really looked back since. The NFL wasn’t always as big as it is now. It started small, grew some in the 60’s, and then exploded into America’s favorite sport, starting in the 70’s. And it really started to get huge about the time Monday Night Football came onto the scene.
And, WHO was the reason Monday Night Football became such a cultural phenomenon? There were THREE reasons, actually. The stars of Monday Night Football that were there when the idea exploded on the American sports/television/cultural scene were Howard Cosell, Dandy Don Meredith and Frank Gifford. As the concept of MNF became more and more popular (with a Monday game suddenly becoming MORE important than a Sunday game), every Monday night became like the circus coming to town, or like a big Halloween party. A real happening. An experience. Almost like a new religion was being born.
And the three of them, Cosell, Meredith and the Giffer, became the three wise men of this new “religion” of Monday Night Football. Since the stars of the football games changed from week to week, the only constants of the new phenomenon were the stars in the booth. When a game was great, they were there to call the exciting game that everybody was watching. When the game was kind of a dud, the three always seemed to come up with some kind of comedic schtick that everybody seemed to want to talk about the next day at work.
Monday night became electric. There was palpable anticipation before each and every Monday night game that became the week’s “main event” and conclusion of each week on the football schedule. Then, the night became something where people started gathering at bars and restaurants to watch that big marquee game. Instead of Monday being that horrible day of “going back to work after the weekend” that people had to deal with, the “back to work day” instead became the lead up to the big game on Monday night. Monday Night Football allowed Monday to be added to the traditional American’s weekend.
Even the halftime portion of the Monday night telecast helped to fill up the previously boring football tradition of having an intermission filled with marching bands playing with trumpets, drums and tubas. Monday Night Football’s halftime highlights of the previous day’s games, narrated by the legendary Howard Cosell, became REALLY important to American football fans, so much so that fans from all of the league’s cities practically had to lobby to get their favorite teams shown before the national TV audience.
Monday Night Football is now played on ESPN instead of ABC. There is also a game every week on Thursday nights too. What used to be really special on Monday nights is now just another game on another day of the week. That’s not a bad thing, of course, as any live football game beats the hell out of a taped sitcom or a cop show any day of the week. But the days of Howard, Dandy Don and the Giffer and the the happening that used to be “Monday Night Football” is now just a game. It feels much more corporate now. Much less organic. The fun and excitement that Monday night used to be is now an overly regulated game where a player can’t even dance or shuffle or ENTERTAIN after scoring a touchdown. Uncool, Mr. Goodell.
Frank Gifford dying yesterday really hit home. He was one of the voices of a lot of people’s youth. And of a lot of people’s adult lives too. He was one of the main voices of pro football. He represented a very significant factor in the history of pro football and was a very colorful part of one of the greatest periods of football and TV history.
They are still playing football games on Monday night, but the phenomenon we once knew as Monday Night Football is really just a memory now. Is the really special game of the week on Sunday nights now? Is it on Thursday nights? Is the big game still on Monday nights? Or are they all just football games now?
Yes, the last of the three wise men has passed on (Cosell and Meredith have been gone for several years now). RIP, Giffer. You were the right man in the right place at the right time. We the fans appreciated what you did.
