Monday Night Football. No matter who was playing, I couldn't wait to watch it when I was a teenager. I thought about the game all day at school. After we had supper, Mom would make some Jiffy Pop popcorn and we'd gather in the living room for three hours of football bliss. I couldn't wait for the opening music to start.
If you are close to my age and shared my love for MNF, you can't forget Tony Dorsett going 99 yards from scrimmage against the Vikings in 1983. Or William "The Refrigerator" Perry scoring a touchdown as running back for the Bears in 1985. Or Bo Jackson going 91 yards from scrimmage against the Seahawks in 1987, running through the end zone and into the tunnel, and seemingly, out into the parking lot.
Those were good times.
But every bit as much as I remember those plays, I remember the guys in the broadcast booth too. Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith made the broadcast interesting. Cosell has been gone for a while now. He died in 1995. A couple of days ago, Meredith died. The first thing I thought about when I heard he was gone was his signature moment in the broadcast booth each week when one team put the other away – the moment he sang, "Turn out the lights, the party's over."
Yesterday, I wanted to hear it again. Maybe you do too:
